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THE 
SUMMER OF 1919 



BY 

MAY DuPONT SAULSBURY 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 

NEW YORK 

1920 



:pcs8 



Copyright, 1921, by 
May duPont Saulsbwry 



APR 15 1921 



g)Cl.A6ilG43 



TO MY HUSBAND 



WITH WHOM ONLY THE EXPERIENCES 

OF THIS TRIP WERE 

POSSIBLE 



FOREWORD 

NOT long after our return, I was 
telling a friend some of our 
experiences in France, and she begged 
me to write an account of the summer 
while it was fresh in my mind. I did 
so with no idea of having it published, 
intending to have it typewritten as a 
surprise for Willard, and to preserve 
what had been a wonderfully inter- 
esting experience, one that we could 
not have had at any other time nor 
under any other circumstances. 

Willard found the story interesting, 
and suggested that I have it printed for 
private distribution. I apologize to 
those friends and relatives whom I have 
put in a book without their permission, 
my excuse being that I did not know it 
was going to be a book; and without 
them there would be very little interest 
in my story. 

May, 1920. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 



CHAPTER I 

WILLARD was very tired after long 
years of work. He had not been able 
to take any holidays, for his position as Presi- 
dent pro tempore of the Senate obliged him 
to be in the Senate when the Vice-President 
was away. Two years ago, the serious illness 
of Mrs. Marshall had made it necessary for 
him to stay in Washington all summer. The 
following year, the Vice-President, after taking 
a vacation in July, had a slight sunstroke which 
prevented his going to work again during the 
heat, and consequently Willard could not have 
a holiday. 

He had wanted to go off on a long sea 
voyage immediately after the 4th of March, 
but was so worn out that he felt unable even 
to prepare to go, and decided on a trip to 
Augusta for some golf first, where he stayed 
for a month. His plan was to go to Australia, 
but I was very anxious to go to France, where 

1:3] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

all our thoughts had been since the beginning 
of the war in 1914. 

All my friends said it would be very sad 
and very uncomfortable, but I wanted to go, 
and he gave way to my wishes on the subject. 
Owing to his position, he was able to get diplo- 
matic passports, which were a great help and 
convenience to us all the way through, and the 
position which he had held made it easier for 
us to do many things which we could not other- 
wise have done. 

We decided to take a chauffeur, intending to 
buy a car in France and sell it when we left. 
This proved to be a very unsatisfactory ar- 
rangement, as we arrived in France just as the 
French government had forbidden the sale of 
American cars, and we sent our chauffeur home, 
after he had seen something of Paris and taken 
a short trip in the devastated country. 

When Willard made up his mind to go, he 
was anxious to sail at once ; but I wanted to wait 
for a good ship, which delayed us a little longer. 
We succeeded in getting passage on the Rotter- 
dam, sailing on the 12th of June. Just at that 
time they were having a strike in the express 
company, and we left Wilmington on the loth, 

n43 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

having sent on our baggage two days before, 
hoping to find it on our arrival in New York. 
In spite of a great deal of help from the Cus- 
toms people, we had difficulty in collecting our 
trunks, ending by going to the baggage rooms of 
the railroad company, and finding it ourselves. 
What a difference there was in the appear- 
ance of the docks from that of our previous sail- 
ings ! Only those people who were going to sail 
were allowed on the boat. Before going on 
board, we were obliged to have our passports 
viseed, and we went up one by one, showing our 
papers to the man at the foot of the gangway. 
Usually at the sailing of a large boat there are 
messenger boys with boxes of flowers and 
baskets of fruit, and telegrams, as well as many 
people on board seeing their friends off. Stew- 
ards go about calling, "All persons who are 
not sailing please leave the boat," and you can 
scarcely move, there is such a crowd. On this 
occasion there was nothing. The decks were 
empty, all the passengers had gone to their 
staterooms to settle themselves and arrange 
their belongings. We started oft in silence, with 
no waving of hands nor demonstrations from 
the shore. 

D3 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

I was delighted with my stateroom. It was 
the most comfortable I had ever had, large, 
with a very good bath, comfortable chairs, and 
altogether extremely nice; in fact, I liked the 
Rotterdam more even than the Olympic, which 
was, up to that time, the finest boat I had ever 
sailed on. 

We hoped that an old friend. Captain Simp- 
son, would be able to sail with us, and had 
ordered a chair next to ours on the deck for 
him, as well as a seat at the table; and just 
at the last moment, he arrived. (He had been 
ordered to England on a special mission, which 
he carried through satisfactorily, and was pro- 
moted to be an admiral before he reached 
America again.) His being with us added 
very much to the pleasure of our voyage, the 
more because there were no other passengers 
on board whom we knew. There were few 
Americans, excepting those who were going for 
some special reason in connection with the 
war. The passengers were from all over the 
world, many being from Java now taking the 
first chance to go home to Holland. The boat 
was slow, and we arrived at Boulogne in ten 
days. 

1:6: 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Willard had written to our Ambassador in 
Paris, asking him to reserve hotel accommoda- 
tions for us, and expected an answer at Fal- 
mouth ; but was disappointed. He sent a wire- 
less from there, and should have had a reply 
at Boulogne, but none came. 

On the day of our arrival in Boulogne we 
were routed out early in the morning, ate an 
early breakfast, and then prepared to show our 
passports. We stood about and waited until 
we were tired. The first thing to be done was 
to be investigated by the quarantine officers. 
After that we stood in line, and, one by one, 
were obliged to go before the officials who ex- 
amined our passports. Even the babies and 
little children had to do this, and it was very 
tiresome. 

It was quite late in the morning before we 
landed at Boulogne, and there was a great rush 
for seats in the special boat train. We suc- 
ceeded in getting two seats in a car in which 
there were a young American lady with her 
French husband, and a Red Cross American 
man. The train should have taken four hours 
to go to Paris, but we were held up all along 
the road by trains of soldiers. They were evi- 

[7] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

dently young English boys going or return- 
ing from a leave. We were ten hours 
going from Boulogne to Paris. I had noth- 
ing to eat or drink, from seven in the morning 
until half past ten that night except a small 
package of caramels which the Red Cross 
man very kindly gave me, as I did not like 
the looks of some bread Willard was able to 
get. 

The journey did not seem long to me, as 
I was so much interested in what I saw. Very 
soon we began to see the effects of shell-fire, 
although nothing to compare to that which we 
were to see later, and we saw graveyards along 
the road with little white crosses, and the pop- 
pies were blooming, reminding us of "In 
Flanders Fields" — 

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place ; and in the sky 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amidst the guns below. 
We are the dead. Short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. 
Loved and were loved — and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
To }'^ou, from falling hands, we throw 
The torch. Be yours to hold it high ; 
If ye break faith with us who die, 
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 
In Flanders fields." 

The train was held up at Amiens for quite 
a little while, and from there on we saw a good 
deal of the destruction caused by shell-fire, 
and one pleasant sight, that of trains and 
trains of German freight cars, the names of 
German towns on each one. 

We had heard that it was almost impossible 
to get accommodations in Paris, because the 
Allied Governments had taken the hotels for 
their offices, and hundreds of persons working 
on the Peace Treaty who were in Paris 
had taken some of the hotels; so that we 
were very anxious to hear from the American 
Embassy about our rooms. As it was, we 
arrived in Paris at ten o'clock at night, without 
any reservations. We decided to try the Hotel 
Plaza-Athenee, where I had stayed six years 
before. It is not a very large hotel, and we 
had little hopes, the American lady In the car, 
of whom I spoke, telling me that It was a good 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

place to stay, but she did not think we could 
get in. 

Instead of the great number of porters 
whom one usually finds in foreign stations, 
there were very few. We secured one, how- 
ever, but at that moment Miss Betty Adler, 
a newspaper correspondent who had a letter 
of introduction to Willard, rushed up and said 
she would go with us (her relatives not 
having met her), making it necessary for our 
porter to go for a barrow for the baggage. 
He disappeared behind the train, and as he 
reappeared he was seized upon by an Ameri- 
can, who, although I said to him, "This is our 
porter," threw his baggage on the barrow. 
The porter did not know what to do. Fortu- 
nately at this moment there arrived a com- 
panion of this man with a barrow of his own, 
and we succeeded in getting rid of the unman- 
nerly creature. We and our baggage at last ar- 
rived at the street. This delay caused us great 
difficulty in finding a taxi, several refusing to go 
as far as the Champs Elysees, which is very 
unlike the usual conditions in Paris. It was a 
poor little taxi and I feared would not hold all 
our baggage and ourselves, but we crowded in 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

and at last drove up in front of the Plaza- 
Athenee Hotel. 

To my great delight, I recognized the man- 
ager of the hotel standing at the front door. 
I rushed up to him, and said, "I am Mrs. 
Saulsbury. I stayed here six years ago. Do 
you remember me?" He said, "Oh, yes, Mrs. 
Saulsbury, I remember you very well," which 
Willard says was only his French politeness. 
He said they would take care of us, and I can 
assure you it was a great relief. They gave 
us comfortable rooms, and promised better 
ones in a few days, and also gave us some 
supper, although the cook had gone home and 
everything was closed up in the dining-room. 

The next morning we had to sign certain 
papers, in order that the hotel be allowed food 
for us. 

The manager, Mr. Ambrewster, who had 
lost one of his two sons in the war, showed 
the effects of his anxieties and sorrow, look- 
ing much older and not so erect as when I 
had seen him last. He told us that when the 
Germans were so close to Paris, arrangements 
were made to burn the great department stores, 
like the Louvre, Galleries LaFayette, Bon 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Marche and others, in order to prevent their 
contents falling into the hands of the Germans. 

He decided, on account of his daughters, to 
leave Paris, had taken his bonds from the bank 
and such things as he could carry in an auto- 
mobile, and with his family was prepared to 
leave as soon as he could get permission to do 
so. At last word came that a gate would be 
open for fifteen minutes at a certain hour, and 
they rushed off. He had hardly time to reach 
the gate. They fled to Orleans, but were 
unable to get shelter, as it was already full of 
refugees, and they drove from town to town 
for several days, sleeping at night by the road- 
side, before they were able to find quarters. 

One of the elevator boys, and he was really 
a boy, had lost one arm. He was still in uni- 
form and wore several decorations. The head 
waiter had taught our soldiers artillery prac- 
tice, and I suppose all the men in the hotel 
had war records, but they did not speak of 
them. 

The first thing we did was to go to the Em- 
bassy, where we found that Willard's letter had 
not reached them until a short time before, his 
wireless not at all. They had reserved rooms 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

for us at the Ritz, but as the management of 
the Plaza had been so polite and nice to us, 
we decided to remain there. 

The next thing that we had to do was to 
register at Police Quarters for permission to 
stay in Paris. After some difficulty, we found 
the place, which was a small temporary build- 
ing. It was filled with people patiently or im- 
patiently awaiting their turn. We sat there 
until we were tired, and the office hours were 
nearly over. 

I had noticed a couple of girls in uniform 
who looked to me like Americans, and I 
thought perhaps they knew the ropes, so I 
went up to them and said, *'Are you Ameri- 
cans?" They replied, "We are English." I 
said, "We have diplomatic passports," which 
they thought would help. So I put my head 
in the door of the room into which I had 
noticed people going, and caught the eye of an 
official there, and said, "We have diplomatic 
passports." She looked at me and made some 
motion that gave me the idea to go in. So I 
beckoned to Willard, and we both entered, and 
waited until she had finished with the person 
on whom she was waiting. She then took down 

D33 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

our data, asking us all sorts of questions. We 
also had to leave our photographs with her. 

That ended our formalities with the Police 
Department, after which we had no trouble in 
staying in Paris. 



Ch] 



CHAPTER II 

I HAVE French cousins. We are distantly 
related, having to go back to my great- 
great-grandfather for a common ancestor 
(the Marquis de Pelleport), but we are the 
nearest relations they have on their father's 
side, and consequently they are more interested 
in us than they would otherwise be. As I 
heard Pierre explain to his brother-in-law, 
'*Les plus proches parents de mon pere." His 
father was my friend, and died a hero of the 
war. 

Pierre de Pelleport was married in June, 
19 14, and after a short honeymoon joined his 
regiment in the mountains of France. He was 
a second lieutenant, having graduated from a 
French military school. His bride went to 
stay in a little village near where his regiment 
was, so that she might see him occasionally, 
and they had expected to have been ordered to 
Paris in September; but on the ist of August 
the war broke out. 

[15] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

He was at the front during the entire war, 
at Rheims, Soissons, Verdun, and so forth, but 
was only once wounded. He was promoted on 
the field of battle, is Chevalier de la Legion 
d'Honneur, and was a captain at the close of 
the war, although for a time he did the work 
of a colonel. His regiment was ordered to 
Paris just before we came to France. In the 
meantime, he had occasionally seen his wife, but 
for only a few days' leave at a time, though 
after a severe illness from influenza he had a 
little longer leave. All in all, they had seen 
very little of each other since they were mar- 
ried. 

They had three children, two pretty little 
girls and a boy, the youngest a baby of three 
months when we arrived; the most fascinating 
baby I have ever known and whom I call my 
beloved Kiki. They had bought a small house, 
5 Square du Ranelagh, which had a little gar- 
den and summer-house, in order that the chil- 
dren might have more freedom than in an 
apartment. It was furnished very attractively 
with antique furniture (Empire) from Guille- 
mette's home. Imagine what it meant to this 
charming young couple, after the cruel separa- 
[16] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

tion during five dreadful years, to have a house 
of their own for the first time since their mar- 
riage in June, 1914. 

They welcomed us by sending me a beautiful 
basket of roses, and then telephoned to make 
an appointment to come to see us. I had never 
seen Pierre's wife, and it was a great pleasure 
to find her very sweet and pretty, very intelli- 
gent and companionable. Pierre himself is 
very tall, over six feet, and she is a little thing. 
He looked stunning in his uniform, and they 
made a very good-looking couple. 

Rather to my disappointment, the French 
officers do not wear their uniforms excepting 
on duty, so that on social occasions he was 
dressed in civilian clothes. I would like to 
have shown him off to my American friends 
in his uniform. 

A few days after our arrival. Secretary of 
State and Mrs. Lansing invited us to dine with 
them at the de Crillon Hotel, which had been 
taken by the American Peace Commission. It 
is in a beautiful situation on the Place de la 
Concorde. We enjoyed the evening very much. 

The French Ambassador and Madame 
Jusserand were there, whom we had seen just 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

before we left Washington at a reception at 
the French Embassy in celebration of the 
changing of the clock at Strasbourg to French 
time. On this occasion, Madame Jusserand 
wore her jewels for the first time since the war 
began, and looked so happy. She holds a 
unique position in Washington society, and is, 
I believe, the most popular woman there, com- 
bining a charming personality with intelligence 
and kindness of heart to a remarkable degree. 
The President and Mrs. Wilson were present, 
the former making a speech in which he re- 
ferred to the return to France of the lost 
provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, as having been 
his hope since boyhood. The guests were 
mostly from the Legations. We considered 
ourselves very lucky to have been invited to 
such a memorable event. 

We were told that it is etiquette when the 
ruler of a country is to visit a foreign nation for 
the ambassador from that country to be there 
to receive him. It had caused quite a sensation 
in Washington to hear, one after another, that 
the ambassadors were leaving, and we thought 
that they were all resigning, and would not re- 
turn, so were relieved to hear that they were 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

only going in order to be in their own countries 
when the President arrived. 

At the Lansing dinner also were Colonel and 
Mrs. House, our Minister to Switzerland, and 
Mr. Hugh Gibson, who is now Minister to 
Poland. 

Just after we arrived in Paris, the news 
came that the Germans had accepted the Peace 
terms, and we heard the sirens which had been 
used to warn of air raids and had caused people 
to fly to the cellars for safety now sounded to 
express the joy of the people at the end of the 
war. 

The news came a day ahead of time, so there 
were two celebrations; just what happened in 
America on the acceptance of the Armistice. 
On the first evening, we went out in an auto- 
mobile to see the celebration in the streets. 
There were great crowds in the boulevards, 
but by that time there was doubt as to the news 
being true, and the excitement was not very 
great. The next night, when the news had 
been confirmed, we went out again. The con- 
cierge had warned us not to go into the boule- 
vards, saying that there would be no police, 
and it would be better for us to keep out of 

i:'93 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

the crowds. He also told the chauffeur, but 
in some way we did get into a very great crowd 
at the front of the Opera. Some boys climbed 
on the top of the car, and rocked it, and some 
people called to us in French, saying we were 
lazy and should walk. They were justly pro- 
voked to have a car try to get through that 
crowd. Willard had at the last moment 
brought a small American flag with him, and 
he put it out of the window and waved it. 
Whether that had anything to do with the re- 
sult or not, I do not know, but we were allowed 
to go through. 

We then went into the quieter streets, where 
we saw people dancing in the street. Very late 
that night, Willard heard a great voice coming 
up the avenue and passing our hotel, singing, 
"Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here!" I fear 
that one American at least had celebrated a 
little too much. 

One morning not long after our arrival in 
Paris we waited for our breakfast, which was 
always served at nine o'clock in our drawing- 
room, and usually arrived punctually. At 
last I rang; no reply, and after several efforts 
to get a waiter, I went on an expedition of 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

discovery into the hall. No one in sight. At 
last an elevator boy told me there was a strike 
of all the waiters in Paris and that the other 
servants had gone out in sympathy. However, 
we found a long table in the dining-room, where 
the head waiter and several of the men from 
the office were serving bread, butter, and coffee 
to the guests. 

After breakfast, I returned to our apart- 
ment, made the beds and straightened up the 
rooms a little, and we then went out and pur- 
chased a stock of provisions, such as chocolate, 
sardines, canned tongue, biscuits, etc., and pre- 
pared for a siege. After all, the cook remained 
faithful and served a very nice dinner, simple 
but enough, and most of the waiters returned 
and waited on table dressed in their everyday 
clothes. One would scarcely have recognized 
this motley crew to be the same men who usu- 
ally served us "spick-and-span" in their evening 
dress. I understood that the manager was 
very popular and good to his employees, and 
the waiters were anxious to help. When we 
came in late that afternoon, the men were 
putting up large iron gates at the entrance and 
said they feared a riot that night and the glass 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

might be broken. However, nothing happened. 
A meeting of the hotel managers was held that 
evening and the strike called off next day. One 
of the demands made by the waiters was to be 
allowed to wear moustaches. In the morning, 
the chambermaid, valet, and waiter walked in 
and without a word about their absence the 
day before went to work as usual. This was 
the first time in my life that I had made a bed 
and I felt rather proud of myself. 

I am now going to leave France and go 
back to Washington to recall some of our ex- 
periences there in relation to the war. 



l^^l 



CHAPTER III 

EARLY in the spring of 19 17 came the 
rumor that Marshal Joffre was coming 
to Washington, but we heard nothing very 
definite. 

I remember one day in the latter part of 
March being down town in the morning doing 
some shopping, when my chauffeur told me 
there was a rumor that Marshal Joffre was to 
reach Washington about noon, and he asked 
if he should try to find a place from which 
we could see him. We were fortunate in find- 
ing a good place for my car on Sixteenth Street, 
and very soon we commenced to see a few per- 
sons gathering, watching and looking down the 
street. Evidently the great event was not gen- 
erally known for there was no crowd, just the 
gradual increase of people looking about as if 
they were expecting someone. Ladies came 
out on the steps of their houses on Sixteenth 
Street, which, as you know, is one of the most 

1:23] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

fashionable dwelling-house streets in Wash- 
ington. After a time we heard them com- 
ing. People left their cars and stood at the 
curb. 

At last they came. An escort of cavalry 
first, and then, in a red and gold cap, with 
smiling face, came the Marshal. It seemed al- 
most incredible that I was actually seeing with 
my own eyes the hero of the Marne. Beside 
him was sitting a "Blue Devil," a very hand- 
some young fellow, and there were other 
Frenchmen following in carriages, all escorted 
by American officials. 

He was to be the guest of Mr, Henry White 
in his beautiful house, 1 624 Crescent Place. Mr. 
White had been our Ambassador to France, 
and was a good French scholar. Everyone of 
course in Washington was very anxious to see 
Marshal Joffre, and we were very much 
pleased to be invited to meet him at dinner at 
Secretary and Mrs. Lansing's. Before I went 
to dinner, I thought of something to say to 
him in French, but of course forgot it when 
the moment came. I had, as I have often had 
in Washington, the feeling that people expected 
me to speak French, and that I was a disap- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

pointment to my host and hostess in that re- 
spect. 

Marshal Joffre was so much of a hero at 
that time that I have forgotten to speak of 
Monsieur Viviani, who really outranked the 
Marshal, and who sat at the right of Mrs. 
Lansing at dinner. My recollection is that the 
French Ambassador sat on her left. I sat on 
the Ambassador's left, so was very close to 
M. Viviani. I regretted very much that as he 
neither spoke nor understood English, I could 
not talk to him. He is an unusually handsome 
man, and looked very much like the Italian 
Ambassador. I spoke of this likeness to Wil- 
lard, who did not agree with me; but at a 
reception given by Mrs. Dimock to the Italian 
Prince, Willard said to me, "Who is that man 
who looks so much like M. Viviani?" and I 
said, "Why, that is the Italian Ambassador." 

To return to the dinner, every time I had a 
chance I looked at the Marshal, who was sit- 
ting far down at the other end of the table, 
and found that he was almost exclusively devot- 
ing himself to his dinner. The ladies sitting 
on either side of him were good French 
scholars, so that it was not because he did not 

1:253 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

have pleasant people to talk to. One of his 
suite, the Admiral, spoke English very well, 
and he acted as an interpreter when it was nec- 
essary to have one. 

A few days afterwards, Willard was invited 
to dine at Mr. Henry White's to meet Marshal 
Joffre. There were present a few of the most 
prominent members of the Senate and House, 
I think possibly eight or ten of each. The 
Marshal was expected at a ball at one of the 
large houses in Washington, but he remained 
at Mr. White's, sitting by a big open fire talk- 
ing to the men until late that night. We were 
told that the ball was not a success because the 
great man did not come. The hostess' eyes 
were fixed on the door, and so were those of 
the guests, watching for the Marshal. 

There were so many other distinguished 
Frenchmen there belonging to the Mission, 
that it seemed as if the ball could have been a 
success even without the Marshal; but appar- 
ently the hostess was unable to turn either her 
thoughts or those of her guests away from the 
hope of seeing him. 

This meeting at Mr. Henry White's was of 
very great importance. He realized that Mar- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

shal Joffre did not come to America for social 
reasons. It was a very serious period, and 
extremely important that he should make the 
leaders in Congress realize conditions in 
France. I understand that his object was to 
get our Government to send over as quickly as 
possible even a few of our soldiers, to encour- 
age the soldiers who had been fighting so long. 
There was a tense feeling in the air which we 
had never felt before, and everyone realized 
that the situation was serious, and I believe it 
was owing to his representations that the send- 
ing over of American soldiers was hurried up. 
Up to that time, we had thought that the Navy 
would be of more assistance to the Allies than 
our Army, and few believed that we would ever 
send a great army to France. 

The French Mission was received in the 
Senate. Willard had two tickets, which he 
gave to me, and I took Mrs. Bayard with me. 
The galleries were packed. The Vice-Presi- 
dent named a Committee to meet the French 
Mission, and to escort them in. M. Viviani 
and Marshal Joffre were seated next to the 
Vice-President, and the others had chairs on 
the floor nearby. M. Viviani spoke in French. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

He made a very beautiful speech, and even 
the people who could not speak French 
seemed to understand him. There was con- 
siderable applause, and at the right moment, 
which surprised me because I did not realize 
there were so many people there who would 
have understood him. There were calls for 
the Marshal to make a speech. The Marshal 
hesitated, and then stood up and said, "I-do- 
not-speak-English. Vive la France! Vive les 
Etats Unisf" I am under the impression that 
this was the first occasion on which a foreigner 
had made a speech in the Senate. 

After this, all the Senators came up in suc- 
cession and were introduced to the Mission, 
followed by the clerks and last of all the pages. 
Imagine the delight of these boys at having the 
honor of shaking hands with the great General! 

When it was all over, Mrs. Bayard turned 
to me and said, "What did the Marshal say?" 
I said, "He said, 'Vive les Etats Unisf " As 
we were going out of the building, an acquaint- 
ance repeated Mrs. Bayard's question, and I 
said, "He said, 'Vive les Etats Unisf " We 
were all expecting to hear, ''Vive I'Ameriqitef 
but afterwards it was recognized that he had 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

said, ^^Five les Etats Unis.'' We Americans 
are modest, we only claim the hemisphere. 

Apropos of Marshal Joffre having said, 
^^Vive les Etats Unis" when everyone expected, 
"Five VAmeriquer^ It is true that we call 
ourselves Americans. There are Canadians, 
Brazilians, Argentines, Mexicans, Peruvians, 
etc., etc., and even South Americans, but Amer- 
icans pure and simple mean the inhabitants of 
the United States. Even in Canada one sees 
in the shops of Montreal and Quebec adver- 
tisements of "American fashions," meaning 
those of New York. 

One reads In English novels of the Ameri- 
can woman married to a British lord, who 
speaks of "The States." I have never in my 
life heard this abbreviation of the United 
States used by an American. 

Washington had at that time commenced to 
hunt for flags, and many houses were decorated 
with those of the French, British and American 
flags. I had ordered some, and had gone away 
to Philadelphia for the day; when I returned 
I found the three flags hanging over our front 
door, and noticed that that of the French was 
on the right. In most instances, the British 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

flag was on the right, but Willard told me 
that he had heard from his chauffeur that 
there had been a discussion among the maids 
as to how the flags should hang. Jeannette, 
the waitress, being an Irish girl, said that the 
British flag should go on the right, but it was 
at last decided that as I was of French descent, 
and as I, as Willard put it, "was the boss," the 
French flag should go on the right. 

On our car we always carried five flags, — 
American, French, British, Italian and Bel- 
gian, — and I understood afterwards that the 
Italians had felt rather badly that so few peo- 
ple had used their flag. 

Of course there was great care taken to 
guard the Foreign Missions. No one knew 
when Marshal Joffre left Washington. My 
impression is that he had been four days at 
sea before it was generally known that he had 
left the country. 

We had a butler who always came to us to 
help out at our dinners, who was a Frenchman, 
and had been a butler at the Marquis de Cham- 
brun's. He told me with tears in his eyes that 
he had been sent to Mr. Henry White's to 
help. The Marquis de Chambrun was one of 

[30] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

the Mission who came over, the son of a 
former Ambassador from France, and had 
recognized him at once, and had said, "Oh, 
Carre!" and kissed him. They had then taken 
this man to watch. When they were telephon- 
ing he would stand in the next room and keep 
guard, and when the Marshal was going to 
leave Washington, they had him tell people 
who inquired, that the Marshal had gone to 
the White House; whereas in reality he had 
taken an unusual route to the station, sailing 
that night. This precaution was on account of 
danger from submarines. 

I was taking Mrs. Bayard for a little motor 
ride the afternoon that Mr. Balfour and the 
British Mission arrived. She was in a great 
state of excitement because there was a feeling 
at that time that it was very unsafe for these 
distinguished people to cross the ocean. She 
suggested that we pass the Breckinridge Long 
house, where they were going to stay, to see if 
the flag was out. We saw the big British flag 
flying, and she exclaimed, "Oh, he is safe, he 
is here safe!" 

Mr. Breckinridge Long is Third Assistant 
Secretary of State, and had rented this very 

D'3 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

large but hideous house, which he loaned to 
the Government for the British Mission. It 
was understood that Mr. Balfour did not care 
for social entertainment. 

Willard, having seen the good results of 
Mr. Henry White's bringing together Marshal 
Joffre and the important men of Congress, 
thought it would be well for him to arrange to 
have the Senate meet Mr. Balfour informally. 
He was the proper person to do it, being Presi- 
dent pro tempore of the Senate. On finding 
that it would be agreeable to Mr. Balfour, 
Willard had this small reception at our house. 
The invitation read, 

"In honor of the Right Honorable Arthur James 
Balfour, Mr. Saulsbury requests the pleasure of the 
company of on Thursday evening, May the sev- 
enteenth, at nine o'clock." 

I invited Mrs. Bayard, the widow of our 
first Ambassador to England, and Miss Squire, 
my secretary, to help me, but no other ladies. 
The Vice-President, the members of the Senate, 
and the Secretary of State were the only guests. 

We had heard that although Mr. Balfour 
played golf, he disliked very much being 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

obliged to stand, and we arranged that very 
soon after his arrival he should be taken to 
what we called my morning-room, which was 
back of the dining-room, where he could sit 
down, and a few men at a time be introduced 
to him by Willard. Mrs. Bayard, Miss Squire 
and myself were interested to see that our plan 
seemed to be working out very well, as we 
noticed a group of Senators who were on the 
Naval Committee clustered around the British 
Admiral, who came with Mr. Balfour. In this 
way most of the Senators had an opportunity 
to talk to our distinguished guest, and we had 
the feeling that our attempt to establish pleas- 
ant relations between them had been of some 
use. 

Willard had always felt that it helped the 
members of the Senate to carry through their 
work to be on pleasant social terms with each 
other, and for that reason each year, while we 
were in Washington, we had given an evening 
reception to the Senators and their wives. This 
same plan seemed to have proved true in re- 
gard to the helping of the success of the British 
'^ and the French Missions. 

While I am speaking of important events 

1:333 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

in Washington, I will skip over to the Easter 
Sunday of the following year. 

The whole country at that time was terribly 
depressed. The British line had broken, the 
Allies were falling back and the Germans were 
advancing all along the front. 

The Archbishop of York arrived in Wash- 
ington. We had gone to church in the morn- 
ing, and the Rev. Cotton Smith had preached 
a very good sermon, in which he said the whole 
world should be on its knees, which we felt to be 
true. In the afternoon we went again to St. 
John's Church to hear the Archbishop speak. 
He looked like a very old man, and we knew 
that he had lost his only son in the war. We 
were surprised to hear afterwards that he was 
not an old man at all. He simply had suffered. 

We had been invited by the British Ambas- 
sador and Lady Reading to meet the Arch- 
bishop at luncheon on Easter Monday. The 
invitation read: 

"To meet His Grace the Lord Archbishop of York, 
the British Ambassador and the Countess of Reading 
request the pleasure of the company of the Honorable 
Willard and Mrs. Willard Saulsbury at luncheon on 
Monday, April thirteenth, 1918, at 12.30 o'clock." 

D43 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

We supposed that this would be a large 
standing luncheon, and were surprised to find 
very few persons were present. There were 
seventeen in all, the guests being, beside the 
Archbishop and his Chaplain, the French 
Ambassador and Madame Jusserand, Secretary 
and Mrs. Houston, Secretary and Mrs. Daniels, 
Mrs. Baker, wife of the Secretary of War, 
Mrs. Crozier, wife of General Crozier, Miss 
Ernst, the Aide to the British Ambassador, 
Major Crawford Stuart, and another English- 
man. 

As I have said before, the war news was 
most depressing, and the British particularly 
must have been almost desperate. We were 
feeling very sorry that the Ambassador was 
obliged to entertain any one that day. It 
seemed as if it were a terrible effort to keep 
up. 

I did not have an opportunity to really con- 
verse with the Archbishop, as he sat some 
distance away from me. He had a very gentle, 
pleasant face, and was very gracious and simple 
in his manner. 

The luncheon passed off very well, and the 
gentlemen went out to smoke. During that time 

C353 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

I was talking to Madame Jusserand, of course 
about the war. She was very much depressed, 
and so was I. The men came back, with the 
exception of the French Ambassador, and we 
were just thinking that it was time to go, when 
M. Jusserand came into the room, smiling, and 
carrying some papers in his hand. He had 
been called out to receive some despatches from 
his Government, which contained the first good 
news since the German drive began. 

He stood in the middle of the room, and we 
all crowded around him, listening, as he read 
this long despatch. It was to the effect that they 
were holding the Germans, and giving quite a 
number of details in regard to the different 
regiments which were engaged, and so on. His 
face was wreathed in smiles, and there was a 
tremendous feeling of relief. When the wife 
of the French Ambassador, who was the person 
to "make the move" to go, shook hands with 
me, her hands were cold and trembling. I am 
sure we all left the Embassy feeling much hap- 
pier than we did when we entered it. 

The Archbishop had made a formal call upon 
Willard, who was at the time, in the absence 
of the Vice-President, presiding over the Senate, 

1:36] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

and Willard had invited him to open one of the 
Senate sessions with prayer, which of course he 
graciously did. 

Another similar occasion was when the Duke 
of Devonshire, then Governor-General of 
Canada, came to visit Washington. The Vice- 
President was away, and he called upon Wil- 
lard as President pro tempore of the Senate, 
who received him in the Vice-President's 
chamber. 

After a few minutes' conversation Willard 
took him into the Senate, which he could do, as 
the Duke is, of course, a member of the House 
of Lords, and gave him a seat on the floor. He 
then introduced several of the Senators to him. 
The same day Willard went to the British 
Embassy, where the Duke was staying, and 
returned his call. 

The Serbian Mission came to Washington 
and were to be received in the Senate. I was 
invited to lunch by the Vice-President and Mrs. 
Marshall to meet them in the Vice-President's 
room in the Capitol after the reception. I 
thought that as I was going to meet them at 
luncheon, I had better go to hear M. Vesnitch, 
the head of the Mission, speak in the Senate, 

D73 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

which I did. He made a good speech. The 
Vice-President replied, and all the usual formali- 
ties were observed. 

As I left the Senate gallery, I was putting on 
a pair of white gloves, and one of the Senators' 
wives said to me, "Oh, you are going to the 
Vice-President's luncheon. I know why you 
are invited — it is because you speak French." 
So I went in with the usual guilty feeling that I 
could not live up to the expectations of my 
friends. However, as I had heard that most 
of these men did not speak English at all, I 
determined to do my best. 

I was taken out to luncheon by a distinguished 
Serbian, considered one of the very brilliant 
men of Serbia, who had lost everything he pos- 
sessed in the war. I was seated at the left of 
the Vice-President, and on my left was my 
Serbian, who spoke only a few words of English. 
We talked, however, all through the luncheon, 
he speaking a mixture of English and French, 
and I a mixture of the same. I could not under- 
stand his French or his English much, nor, I am 
sure, could he understand me. However, 
whenever he looked pleased I laughed, and I 
suppose he did the same. He was deaf in the 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

ear towards me, and he had to turn his head 
around so that I could talk into the other ear. 
On his other side there was a lady whom I 
imagined was speaking very good French, and 
undoubtedly she did very much better than I 
could. 

The Vice-President, when the Serbian was 
talking to the other lady, asked me how I was 
getting along, and I told him. He said that 
the day before at luncheon at the White House 
Willard and he were seated with this gentle- 
man between them. He said to Willard, "How 
are you getting on?" Willard replied, "He is 
deaf on my side," and the Vice-President 
replied, "He is dumb on mine!" The Vice- 
President cannot understand or speak a word of 
French and Willard is not much better. 

When we rose from the luncheon, I said to 
the young lady who sat on the other side of the 
Serbian, "I was so glad you could not hear my 
French." She said, "I was glad you could not 
hear mine." Mr. William Phillips, Assistant 
Secretary of State, who speaks French very well, 
was sitting opposite me, and we had exchanged 
amused glances during the luncheon, I said the 
same thing to him, "I am glad that you could 

1:39] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

not hear me." He replied, "Well, never mind, 
you made the dear old gentleman happy. I 
have not seen him look so pleased since he 
came!" Very kind of Mr. Phillips, was it 
not? 

I was very sorry to have been away from 
Washington when the Japanese Mission came, 
as since our visit to Japan I had been much 
interested in the Japanese, and also because the 
Vice-President was away and Willard, as Presi- 
dent pro tempore of the Senate, took his place 
and received the Mission on the occasion of 
their visit to the Senate. 

I have asked him to let me include a descrip- 
tion of the ceremonies, in order to round out 
the story of the coming of the foreign missions 
to Washington when we entered the war. 

The ceremonies at the Senate were a repeti- 
tion of those for the other foreign missions. 

Special Ambassador Ishii, accompanied by 
all his suite, had called on Willard in the Vice- 
President's Chamber, and Willard returned his 
call at the Belmont house which had been lent 
by Mr. Belmont for the use of the Japanese 
Mission. The time was then fixed when the 
Senate would receive the Mission. 

1:40] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Willard was In the chair. The members of 
the Mission were escorted In by a number of 
Senators who had been selected by the presid- 
ing officer for this honor. Special Ambassa- 
dor Ishli was seated at the right of the chair, 
Ambassador Sato at the left, and the others, 
Japanese generals, admirals and diplomats, were 
seated in chairs In front of the Senators' desks 
facing the chair. Willard made the speech of 
welcome, which I insert, as I think It Is a gem 
and want to preserve it. 

RECEPTION OF THE JAPANESE MISSION 
{From Congressional Record) 

The President />ro tempore (Mr. Saulsbury) said: 
Senators, we are highly honored to-day by the pres- 
ence of these distinguished guests, who come to us repre- 
senting the most ancient and powerful Empire of the 
world. We have met here before and welcomed the 
distinguished missions from other great nations. Heroic 
Belgium, historic Italy, great Russia, beloved France, 
and democratic Britain have sent to us of their best, 
but to none have we extended a more cordial welcome 
than to-day we give to the representatives of great 
Nippon, that beautiful land of ancient tradition and 
passionate patriotism. [Applause.^ 

A mighty nation is the ancient Empire of Japan. 
Its youth renewed, it joins our great young Nation in 

C40 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

pledging anew a continuance of our old friendship, 
which the trouble-maker of the earth has tried so hard 
to interrupt. We now know how industriously in- 
sidious attempts have been made by the Prussian mas- 
ters of the German people to bring about distrust and 
hatred in the world. We know what evil attempts 
they have made to breed hatred and distrust of us 
among our friends, and we welcome this opportunity 
to heartily congratulate our old friends who honor us 
to-day that by the capture of Tsing Tau and the Ger- 
man islands in the Pacific Japan has completely re- 
moved from the Far Eastern world the only threat, as 
we believe, to peace and prosperity, the only threat to 
lasting peace in eastern Asia. [Jpplause.'\ 

Within the memory of living man Prussians have 
provoked four wars for conquest and in three suc- 
ceeded. Their fourth attempt has roused the world to 
unified, concerted action. 

The yellow peril was made in Germany, and Shang- 
tung was seized ; the Slav peril was made in Germany, 
and Serbia was overwhelmed and Russia was invaded ; 
but the thick-witted, smug, self-centered supermen of 
Germany entering their last attempt at conquest have 
roused a real peril — a real peril to themselves — and the 
free nations that believe in international honor, in the 
binding force of treaties, and in the pledged word are 
grimly though so sorrowfully engaged in creating, per- 
fecting, and bringing to successful issue an alliance for 
the benefit of all earth's people, which will protect the 
rights of nations, small and great, and enable them to 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

lead their lives in peace, and lead them unafraid. This 
alliance we and the other free nations of the earth are 
creating to control the disturbers of the peace of the 
world, and it is now succeeding. The alliance we 
create is based on the brotherhood of man, the equal 
rights of men and nations. It is based on the universal 
kindly instincts of the human heart, no matter whether 
that heart beats in an eastern or a western breast, no 
matter where free men live, in America or Asia, in 
South Africa, in Europe, or in South America. The 
alliance we create is directed against and threatens only 
wrong, inhumanity, and injustice. It threatens only 
rapacity, greed, hypocrisy, and nationalized brutality. 
It threatens only military autocracy and the violators 
of treaties who disregard the pledged honor of nations. 
Our alliance is indeed a peril, but only to the new 
pirates of the seas, to the assassins of the air; to those 
who violate international decency and fair dealing, 
who misuse the forces of developed science and distort 
the teachings of philosophy, who would destroy civiliza- 
tion itself in the effort to accomplish world domination. 
This peril our alliance has created is the peril to the 
central European powers, but it bears no color label. 
It is and will be in the future the common glory of all 
true men of all free nations everywhere to have joined 
in its creation and success. It is an Anglo-French- 
Slav-Italian-Japanese-American peril to the misdemean- 
ant of the world. [Jpplause.l Allies in East and 
West are joined together to bring back lasting peace to 
a disordered and war-sick world. Let us renew our 

[43] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

time-honored friendship with clasped hands and good 
wishes for the peaceful, friendly development of both 
our Nations and assure poor, stricken Europe that this 
western Republic and eastern Empire, together in 
friendly accord, will work for the good of all humanity. 
[Applause.^ 

This Congress has pledged all the resources of our 
great country to our common cause, the curbing of in- 
ternational rapacity and hate and barbarism. 

Senators, I have never believed there was more than 
a jingling rhyme in the phrase that East is East and 
West is West and never the two shall meet, and we 
are happy to-day, while honoring our distinguished 
guests, to demonstrate to the world that there is no 
East and there is no West when strong men come to- 
gether as friends, though they come from the ends of 
the earth, determined in friendly alliance to work out 
right and justice for themselves and all earth's peoples. 
[Applause.] 

Let us never permit hereafter that evil tongues or 
wicked propaganda shall cause even the simplest minded 
among our people to forget the ancient friendship of 
our Nations or weaken the ties of mutual respect and 
regard in which we hold each other. This meeting to- 
day symbolizes complete international fraternity which 
common consciousness of international honor has 
brought about. Let it be eternal! 

I have the honor of presenting to the Senators of the 
United States the most distinguished of our visitors, 

[44] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

his excellencj' Viscount Ishii, chief of the mission from 
Imperial Japan. \^Great applause.~\ 

The Special Ambassador replied and this 
was followed by the presentation of the Sena- 
tors, who all shook hands with the distinguished 
guests. 

A few days after Willard gave a dinner to 
Ambassador Ishii and the members of the Mis- 
sion at the Metropolitan Club. 

Ambassador Ishii sat on Willard's right and 
Ambassador Sato was on his left. The Speaker 
of the House (Champ Clark) sat at the foot 
of the table, with the Secretary of State (Mr. 
Lansing) on his right, and the Councillor of the 
Japanese Embassy on his left. At one L of the 
table sat Admiral Benson, with the Japanese 
Admiral on his right. On the other L was 
General Weaver, the Japanese General on his 
right. 



[;453 



CHAPTER IV 

I WILL now return to Paris. 
We decided to have a little dinner for 
Secretary and Mrs. Lansing, who were soon to 
return to America. The hotel in which we were 
staying is in a very pleasant part of Paris 
on the Avenue Montaigne, and we had quite 
comfortable apartments, consisting of two 
rather large bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a 
small but pretty drawing-room. 

We did not like to have this dinner in the 
regular dining-room of the hotel, and after 
consulting with the manager, we decided to have 
it in a small drawing-room which opened into 
the larger drawing-room of the hotel. We felt 
that we would like to take these friends to our 
own little drawing-room after dinner, and had 
asked the housekeeper to give us a few more 
chairs, which we moved around and around, 
trying to have a few feet of rug show between 
the chairs, and at the same time to allow our 
friends to sit down. It was rather small, but 

1:473 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

would answer under the circumstances, as we 
were not entirely responsible for the conditions. 
We had a few vases of flowers, and altogether 
the room looked rather cosy and pretty. 

We received our guests In the large drawing- 
room downstairs, as we did not want to have 
them go upstairs twice In the elevator. 

In addition to Secretary and Mrs. Lansing, 
we had Colonel Delano, a man of probably 
over fifty, who had been the president of a rail- 
road before taking the position of a member 
of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. 
He volunteered for war service, and had been 
training for a year before, so that he might be 
able to serve when the time came, as he was 
sure It would, that America would declare war. 
He was put In charge of important engineering 
work, distinguished himself, and was decorated 
for his services. 

His sister, Mrs. Forbes, who lived in Paris, 
and whom I had known quite well for many 
years, was also one of the guests; Mrs. Stet- 
tinius, wife of the banker (a member of the 
Morgan firm, who had been for a time one of 
the dollar-a-year men in Washington, and was 
made Assistant Secretary of War) ; Mr. Henry 

[48] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

White, a member of the Peace Mission, who 
had been Ambassador to France at one time; 
my cousins, the Marquis and Marquise de Pelle- 
port; Mr. Robert Woods Bliss, counselor of 
the American Embassy; Monsieur and Madame 
Simon; and Mr. Herbert Hoover. 

We received our guests in the drawing-room. 
When dinner was announced, we went to the 
smaller drawing-room where dinner was served, 
and it all passed off very well indeed. The 
ladies went upstairs before the coffee, leaving 
the men to smoke. Guillemette de Pelleport 
helped serve the coffee to the ladies in our 
drawing-room. After a while the men came up. 
The room was not quite so full that we all had 
to stand up or sit down at once, and altogether 
we felt it was a very informal and pleasant 
little dinner. 

While the ladies were alone talking after the 
dinner at Mrs. Lansing's, Mrs. Lansing, Mrs. 
House and Madame Jusserand were discussing 
the question as to whether they would be 
allowed to see the signing of the Peace Treaty, 
which was going to take place in the course of 
two or three days, and I thought, if they were 
doubtful, there certainly would be no chance for 

1:49: 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

me. Of course the Congress was very large, 
representing a great many different countries, 
and there would be the members of the Press, 
and the notables, and although the Salle des 
Glaces at Versailles is a very large room, it 
would not be reasonable to expect that they 
would ask many people. Willard had held, a 
short time before, the highest position under 
the constitution of anyone then present in Paris 
excepting the President, and we hoped that it 
might be possible for him to be present at the 
signing of the Treaty. We were very much 
pleased when he received an invitation. This 
was only the day before the event took place. 
The morning of the signing, Willard told me 
that he felt very mean, going off to such a won- 
derful sight when I could not go, but I felt 
perfectly satisfied and only too pleased that he 
had the opportunity. 

Among the gentlemen who came over with 
Marshal Joffre was M. Joseph Simon, as 
Director of Finances for the French Mission. 
His wife spoke very little English, but like 
most foreigners she improved very rapidly, and 
I grew to know her quite well, and liked her 
very much. The following summer, owing 

cson 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

to the fact that I was going to the Samoset, 
Rockland, Maine, she, with her husband and 
her little boy, Marco, came to the hotel and 
stayed two or three weeks, so that I felt that 
we knew each other very intimately. 

She had returned to France before we left 
Washington, and was living on the Avenue 
Matignon, Champs Elysees, only about three 
blocks from the Plaza Athenee, our hotel. 
From the moment of our arrival in Paris she 
showed me all sorts of little attentions. 

After Willard had left the hotel to go to see 
the signing of the Treaty, I had told our chauf- 
feur that I would not want him before two 
o'clock, and at one o'clock was eating my lunch 
alone, when in rushed Madame Simon all in a 
flutter. She said, "Go and get your hat on, 
and get your car ! I have cards for la Terrasse ! 
Mrs. Stettinius and her daughter are going 
with us! She can't get her car, and I have no 
car, and we will all go in yours!" I exclaimed, 
"My car won't be here until two o'clock!" 
I rushed to the concierge, who tried to call it, 
but was unable to find the chauffeur. In the 
meanwhile, Madame Simon was frantically 
telephoning Mrs. Stettinius, and I was putting 

DO 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

on a hat and veil. Mrs. Stettinius could not 
find her chauffeur, so then we tried to get a taxi. 
There were comparatively few in Paris, and 
on that day, by that time, there were almost 
none to be had. At last the porter stopped a 
very poor shabby old taxi, with the funniest old 
Frenchman for a chauffeur. He wore a long 
grey coat down to his feet, and, as Mrs. Stet- 
tinius said, he reminded her of one of the char- 
acters in Balzac's novels. 

At last we started off, little Miss Stet- 
tinius sitting on the floor of the taxi. Every 
time we came to a little upgrade, the car would 
very nearly stop, and we would be in the great- 
est state of excitement, because we had no time 
to lose. We really had a great deal of fun 
going out, and at last arrived in time. The old 
taxi man evidently "knew the ropes." Of 
course we had to show our cards from time 
to time, and all along the road people were 
lined up, watching the cars going out to see the 
show. We alighted from the taxi at one of 
the avenues leading directly up to the Terrace. 

Mrs. Stettinius told the taxi man that if he 
would wait for us she would give him one 
hundred francs. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

The Terrace at Versailles is always very 
beautiful. That day there was a row of soldiers 
keeping the people back a certain distance from 
the Chateau. The room in which the Treaty 
was being signed was one which faced the 
Terrace, and it was thrilling to feel the impor- 
tance of what was going on there, although we 
were unable to see it. 

There were many officers in different uniforms 
on the terrace, and ladies in afternoon dress. 
You could imagine it as the occasion of a very 
beautiful garden party. It was not by any 
means crowded, and we walked about, meeting 
a number of acquaintances. It seemed strange 
to me to find so many people I knew there, 
French ladies whom I had met in Washington, 
and their husbands, and Madame Simon of 
course saw many acquaintances, whom she would 
stop to speak to, and introduce to us, and Mrs. 
Stettinius met a young cousin with an army car 
and several young friends. She immediately 
said, "We will go back with them." These 
young men and the Stettinius young girl were 
with us all the afternoon. 

Of course we knew nothing of what was 
going on inside, but when the Treaty was 

[53] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

actually signed a volley was fired by the 
soldiers, and the fountains began to play, the 
airplanes circled around overhead, and the 
knowledge of what it all meant made it a very 
thrilling occasion, as well as a beautiful sight. 

Then came the question of how to find our 
chauffeur. Mrs. Stettinius and Madame Simon 
both were sure they knew the road. In the 
meantime, we had all packed into the army car, 
and we made various attempts to find the 
avenue in which we left the man. At last we 
found him, leaning against a tree, a perfect 
figure of patience. We recognized him immedi- 
ately by his long grey coat. Mrs. Stettinius 
paid him the hundred francs, and we returned 
to Paris in great comfort in a very good Cadil- 
lac limousine. 

I arrived at our hotel, went up to our apart- 
ment, and found Willard already there. I was 
in quite a state of excitement after the pleasant 
afternoon, and he was pleased to think I did 
not have to stay at home and see nothing of the 
great event which Willard describes as follows : 

"May has asked me to give an account of the 
"actual signing of peace, so that she may add it 
"to her story of the summer's experience. 

1:543 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"There was a tremendous effort to get places 
"in the Hall of Mirrors where the Peace Con- 
"ference sat, on the day when the Germans 
"were to appear to complete the formalities by 
"actually signing the Treaty which, the pre- 
"vious Monday, they had agreed to sign. 

"I was furnished with a ticket of admission 
"on which was the number of my seat in the 
"Hall of Mirrors, and I reported at the Hotel 
"de Crillon where the Peace Commissioners 
"and the invited guests were to assemble and 
"go in more or less a processional way to Ver- 
"sailles. We were furnished with one of the 
"army cars, which was marked with an official 
"circular target, red, white and blue, showing 
"that we were entitled to pass into the Place 
"d'Honneur of the Chateau, and we left the de 
"Crillon, there being in our car Ambassador 
"and Mrs. Morgenthau, a military officer or 
"two, and myself. 

"We went to Versailles by way of the 
"Champs Elysees and through the park of 
"Saint-Cloud, the whole route, excepting 
"through the park, being lined by cheering 
"crowds, waving flags; chiefly French, of 
"course, but many of them American and 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"British, and here and there the other Allies' 
"flags were seen. 

"When a number of the official cars were 
"passing a point closely together, where there 
"were large crowds, the enthusiasm became in- 
"tense. One time, when the crowds looking at 
"the procession were shouting their loudest, I 
"turned to Morgenthau, and asked him how 
"they managed to find that he was coming along 
"at that particular time. 

"French soldiers were everywhere in their 
"brilliant and striking uniforms. Through the 
"Park of Saint-Cloud a very striking efFect was 
"produced by stationing soldiers or gendarmes 
"at the turns of the road, and sometimes in 
"short spaces along a long stretch of road, to 
"signal the official cars with red flags which they 
"waved, and with which they pointed in the 
"direction we were to go. 

"As we reached Versailles, and neared the 
"Place d'Armes, the sight was most beautiful. 
"French soldiers, infantry and cavalry, pro- 
"tected the passageway from the encroach- 
"ments of the sight-seers, who were present in 
"thousands, while the automobiles containing 
"the plenipotentiaries and the invited guests 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

came through the Avenue de Paris, the Place 
d'Armes, and the Court d'Honneur to the 
marble vestibule, from which you ascend the 
marble staircase to the Royal Apartments of 
olden time, and thus enter the Hall of Mir- 
rors. 

"The whole scene was most impressive. One 
passed by heroic statues to mingle with the 
great ministers of great nations and the great 
ministers of small nations, saluted by the won- 
derful soldiers of France at every point and 
turn, and then ascended this beautiful and his- 
toric staircase between lines of the republican 
guard at salute, to enter the hall where, less 
than fifty years before, the German Empire 
had been born, to witness the final scene of the 
necessary curbing of the military ambition of 
the Teutonic nations, which had been made a 
part of their personal as well as national life 
for two generations. The act soon to be wit- 
nessed would destroy, as all truly civilized men 
hoped, the horrible ambitions of the former 
rulers of this people. 

"There was no precedence in the arrival of 
the plenipotentiaries and the invited guests, all 
of whom descended from their automobiles at 

D73 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

the door of the marble vestibule and staircase, 
and straggled into the Hall of Mirrors, many 
stopping in one of the vestibules to chat with 
friends, renewing, in some cases (as I did), 
acquaintances which had some years ago 
commenced, but had been interrupted by the 
war. 

"Just before the sitting began, each of the 
guests was given what in our legislative bodies 
would be called a calendar, in British assem- 
blies agenda, in the French, ordre du jour. It 
was of course very simple for this sitting and 
indicated the business to be the Signature of 
the Treaty of Peace between the Allies and 
Associated Powers, and Germany. The copy 
given me I have had framed with my invitation 
and card of admission to the hall and the ticket 
marking my seat. I think probably as curiosi- 
ties they may be very interesting in the com- 
ing years. 

"The plenipotentiaries and guests gradually 
assembled, each of the delegates, of course, 
having a seat at the tables in the center of the 
hall, the invited guests occupying about one 
quarter of the space on the left of Clemenceau, 
the President of the Congress, and the press 

C58] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"occupying about the same space on the right 
"hand of the hall, they having entered through 
"the Salon de la Guerre, the guests and pleni- 
"potentiaries having entered through the Salon 
"de la Paix. 

"When the representatives of the Allies had 
"assembled and taken their places, the German 
"plenipotentiaries were announced, and as they 
"approached through the same way we had 
"entered, absolute and unbroken silence suc- 
"ceeded the cheerful buzz of conversation and 
"rejoicing which had marked the occasion since 
"the delegates and guests began to arrive. 

"I was sitting on the third or fourth bench, or 
"settle, from the front, with General Pershing 
"and Henry Morgenthau. Just ahead of us, I 
"recall, were Mrs. Wilson, Miss Margaret Wil- 
"son, Mrs. Lansing, Mrs. House, Mr. and Mrs. 
"Scott. I was seated next but one to the aisle 
"through which all the plenipotentiaries and 
"guests came. I could readily have touched the 
"German delegates with my hand as they 
"passed, and I looked particularly to discover, 
"if I could, any emotion on their faces. They 
"were absolutely impassive, not a sign of color 
"in their faces could be detected; they seemed to 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"be of graven stone, the Secretaries they 
"brought with them, as well as the Commis- 
"sioners, Dr. Mueller and Mr. Bell. One could 
"imagine what a terrific strain they were under- 
"going, compelled by the force of military 
"power, which had been the ideal and prac- 
"tically the god of German ideas for half a 
"century, to bear this humiliation, and agree to 
"destroy all possibility of military dominance of 
"their country in Europe for at least some gen- 
"erations. 

"One touch to the scene which I have not 
"seen mentioned anywhere made one realize 
"what tremendous feeling existed between the 
"French and Germans. Two republican guards 
"at salute had stood at the head of the passage 
"where the seats for the guests ended and those 
"of the delegates began, and between them thus 
"saluting passed the delegates of the Allies. 
"When the German delegates were announced, 
"these two guards, who were standing almost 
"near enough for me to touch them, with em- 
"phasis lowered their swords, returned them to 
"their scabbards with a clang, and, turning their 
"backs, marched to either side of the hall, with 
"a grim smile of satisfaction on their faces, in- 
160-2 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"dicating how pleased they were that they need 
"not salute the hated Germans. 

"I forgot to mention one of the most interest- 
*'Ing features of the gathering. In the em- 
"brasures of the windows, from which you 
"overlooked the terrace and fountains of Ver- 
"sailles, were gathered probably twenty soldiers 
"of the French, British and American armies 
"who had been wounded after some especial 
"bravery shown in action. They had been espe- 
"cially selected and given the honor of being 
"present, as representing their comrades, at the 
"final and formal act of making peace; and one 
"of the touching things in the whole wonderful 
"scene was Clemenceau greeting the French 
"mutilees individually, and saying to each, 
" 'You have suffered; but here is your reward.' 

"When the Germans had taken their seats, 
"Clemenceau, known as 'the Old Tiger,' 
"declared the sitting open, announced its object, 
"and invited the Germans to advance to the 
"table whereon the official copy of the Treaty 
"lay, and sign it; which they did. The hall 
"was absolutely silent. 

"The Germans having returned to their 
"seats, the Allied and Associated Nations, 

C60 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"through their representatives, beginning with 
"President Wilson and the American delega- 
"tion, followed by Lloyd George with the 
"British delegates, affixed their signatures to 
"the Treaty. The signing, I believe, as well as 
"the order of the wonderful military parade on 
"Bastille Day, was supposed to be fixed in 
"alphabetical order, using the French language, 
"and it was the compliment of France and her 
"Allies to the United States which caused them 
"to use in official language the word 'Amerique' 
"instead of 'Etats Unis,' in this manner placing 
"American plenipotentiaries first in line of 
"precedence. 

"All the Allies and Associated Nations were 
"represented at Versailles on June 28th except 
"the Chinese, who refused to sign the Treaty 
"which contained the provisions against which 
"they had protested concerning Shantung. We 
"were sorry the Chinese were not there, be- 
"cause the Chinese minister at Washington, Dr. 
"Koo, whom I had first met in Peking, was a 
"very charming and delightful friend, as well 
"as an able man. He was one of the Chinese 
"plenipotentiaries at Paris, having left Wash- 
"ington to act in that capacity. 

1:62] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"As the signing of the Treaty proceeded, 
requiring of necessity considerable time, the 
buzz of conversation recommenced, and con- 
tinued until Clemenceau announced the final 
signature, and declared the sitting of the Con- 
gress suspended. 

"It would be making a list of the statesmen 
of the world to attempt to name the delegates 
present at this Congress. Twenty-seven 
nations were represented. All, so far as they 
could, had participated in military operations 
against the Central Empires and their Allies. 
Millions of men wearing uniforms had met 
death in the field; more millions of civilians, 
men, women, and children, had suffered death 
from want and privation, malnutrition and the 
maladies and evils which accompany war. 
These delegates had made it possible to banish 
war from civilized lands forever. 

"Some of the smaller countries who had most 
greatly suffered in the war were represented 
by men whose names are now well known 
throughout the world. Some of them were 
well known before the war, but not as states- 
men. Paderewski was the great representa- 
tive of Poland re-born, Masaryk of Czecho- 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

"Slovakia, Vesnitch of Serbia, — these I had 
"known in Washington, but Venizelos, the man 
**who practically saved Greece from self- 
-destruction under the influence of a Hohen- 
"zollern queen, takes high place, and I had the 
"honor of meeting him on this day for the first 
"time. 

"When the final signature was placed on the 
"Treaty and the Annexes to the Treaty, upon 
"the announcement of Clemenceau as President 
"of the Congress, one heard the salvos of artil- 
"lery which had in a less strenuous way cele- 
"brated the announcement of the Germans six 
"days previously that this great historical spec- 
"tacle would occur, the Signing of Peace. 

"The fountains of the park played, aero- 
"planes whirled and circled, Paris again gave 
"itself up to rejoicing — rejoicing which had 
"started six days before, and would not stop 
"entirely until after the 14th of July, when the 
"friends of France among all the nations of the 
"world would join her in that great rejoicing, 
"and their soldiers march with hers under the 
"Arch of Triumph, which has been closed for 
"fifty years to victorious processions. 

1:64] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

"Congratulations, hand-shaking, and tears of 
"joy in the eyes of many concluded the occasion. 

"The German delegates retired inconspicu- 
"ously through the guests immediately the 
"announcement of the signing had been made. 

"Some of the plenipotentiaries went to the 
"Terrace, where a large number of invited 
"guests were assembled, and where we from 
"the windows of the Hall of Mirrors could see 
"them surrounded and almost mobbed in a 
"friendly way. The guests mingled with the 
"plenipotentiaries, and passed out in the way 
"they had arrived, regaining their automobiles 
"as best they could, and returned to Paris 
"through the scenes of rejoicing they had wit- 
"nessed on their way to Versailles. 

"The officer who had charge of our automo- 
"bile dropped me at my hotel, and I was soon 
"glad to know that May, returning from her 
"trip to Versailles with Mrs. Stettinius and 
"Madame Simon, had so greatly enjoyed the 
"pageant from that viewpoint." 



C6S] 



CHAPTER V 

THEN came the celebration of the Fourth 
of July. We had tickets to see the parade, 
sent from the Embassy, and asked Mr. and 
Mrs. Bellamy Storer to go with us. They had 
come over on the Rotterdam. We had thought 
them very pleasant, and they had rooms just 
above us in our hotel. Mr. Storer had been 
our Ambassador to Austria, and Mrs. Storer 
had been known as "Dear Maria" from letters 
written to her by Theodore Roosevelt, who 
wanted her influence with the Pope to have 
Bishop Ireland made a Cardinal. We sat 
quite near them in the dining-room, and had 
little talks from time to time, which we enjoyed. 
To return to the parade. There was quite 
a crowd, of course. Many houses were dec- 
orated with American flags, and we had a fairly 
good view of the parade, but I was obliged to 
stand on a chair in order to see through the 
crowd. 

[673 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

The American flag was displayed every- 
where. The avenues were crowded, and doubt- 
less I would look back on this as one of the 
great days of my life if it were not that the 
celebration of the Fourteenth of July so far 
surpassed it. But the marching of the Ameri- 
can troops was very fine, and everyone spoke of 
it. Immediately after the parade passed, and 
we had found our car, we started to see the 
ceremonies at LaFayette's tomb. 

I thought we certainly ought to have an 
American flag on our car, and suggested that we 
buy one, not realizing how crowded the streets 
were; although our chauffeur went a long way 
around, we had some difficulty in getting 
through, and Willard was very much afraid we 
would be delayed too long, and miss the cere- 
monies. However, we succeeded in getting a 
couple of little flags, which the chauffeur fast- 
ened to the front of the car, and he drove 
through some out-of-the-way streets and made 
pretty good time, and at last we arrived at the 
cemetery (Picpus). The chauffeur evidently 
knew the best place to take us, and we drove up 
to an entrance where there were absolutely no 
other cars in sight, but a group of men were 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

waiting at the gate, to receive the President of 
the Republic and other distinguished guests. As 
I got out of the car, these gentlemen all came 
forward to speak to me. I knew them all. 
There was the Secretary of State, the American 
Ambassador, General Pershing, Mr. Henry 
White, General Harts, General Bliss and Mon- 
sieur Andre Tardieu. This amused Willard 
very much, because it looked as if they were all 
waiting there to receive us. 

We then went into the cemetery. The 
LaFayette Tomb is in a corner near the wall, 
and when we arrived, there were a number of 
people standing about, principally, I think, the 
members of the LaFayette family. I felt very 
much impressed because of the connection 
between General LaFayette and my family. It 
had always seemed a romantic thing that Gen- 
eral LaFayette had given away my grandmother 
when she was married. He had been a friend 
of my great-grandfather in France, and this 
friendship continued during his life. In spite 
of this, I had never thought of going to his 
tomb when I had been in Paris before. 

Standing right in front of us were two young 
American girls in uniform, very ordinary look- 

1:693 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

ing young persons, and we afterwards saw the 
same girls at Belleau Woods, but do not know 
who they were. 

At last the procession came in, headed by the 
President of the Republic. There were some 
ladies — Mrs. Wallace and others — in the group. 
A wreath was placed by President Poincare on 
the tomb, and our Ambassador made a little 
speech which was very timely and good. They 
left the cemetery soon after, but we stayed a 
little while, looking at the tomb and the tomb- 
stones nearby. 



Do] 



CHAPTER VI 

ALTHOUGH the season is over in Paris by 
. the end of June, le beau monde was still 
in town on account of the coming celebration. 

The first thing we did on our arrival in Paris 
was to call at the American Embassy, after find- 
ing on what day Mrs. Wallace would be re- 
ceiving, and we met there a few American, Eng- 
lish and French ladies. There were very few 
men present. Mrs. Wallace looked tired, but is 
a very gracious hostess. The house was the same 
as that occupied by our former Ambassador. It 
is large and handsome, with a very pretty 
garden. It seemed bare and cold to me, as 
there was almost nothing on the walls — possibly 
one handsome painting in each room. I said 
to a lady whom I met there that it looked cold 
to me — there should be tapestries or pictures on 
the walls. She said in a scornful way that if 
you had very handsome tapestries it was all very 
well, but otherwise it was customary to have 
these bare walls in Paris. 

DO 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

I should have called on Mrs. Wallace on the 
Fourth of July, as it is customary for all 
Americans to call at our Embassy at that date, 
but I was tired after standing so long watching 
the parade, and did not go. Willard, however, 
went, and enjoyed the afternoon very much, 
meeting many Americans and a few foreigners. 
The garden being used on that occasion added 
to the beauty of the entertainment. 

Willard had gone to a luncheon at the 
Embassy a day or two before, and found it very 
pleasant, meeting a number of distinguished 
men, and a few days later Mrs. Wallace invited 
me to lunch. There were, I think, about twenty- 
four ladies, and as we sat around the table I 
noticed that I was the only one present wear- 
ing colors. They were not in mourning, but 
everyone dressed in black. My recollection is 
that practically everyone present was American 
born, or English. I think some of the ladies 
were the wives of men attached to the foreign 
legations, and I heard a considerable amount of 
French spoken. I sat between an American 
and an Englishwoman. Hers was the only name 
I remember. It was Lady Waterloo, and she 
told me that our Ambassador in London was 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

living In her house. She hoped very much that 
our government would buy it for an Embassy. 

After seeing all these ladies in black who 
were not French, I was impressed by the fact 
that Madame Simon, who had lost a brother in 
the war, was wearing colors, and my de Pelle- 
port relations, who had also lost very near mem- 
bers of their family, were not dressed in black. 

On former visits to Paris, I had felt reason- 
ably up to date in regard to clothes, but this 
year I was certainly much behind the times, and 
suppose it was because our dressmakers had not 
been able to go abroad. I remember that in 
August, '14, my dressmaker was crossing the 
Atlantic on her way to Paris, when one evening 
her steward told her to pack up, as she would 
be in New York In the morning. The ship had 
turned in mid-ocean on the news of war, and the 
passengers did not know it. 

A day or two later we went to dine Informally 
with Mrs. Forbes, which we enjoyed very 
much. Her brother, Colonel Delano, whom we 
knew very well in Washington, was there, and 
Madame Waddlngton, the authoress; also a 
French duke, who was a nephew of Mrs. 
Forbes, and several others. 

C73] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Then we dined with Mr. and Mrs. Stettinlus 
to meet General Henderson, a distinguished 
British soldier. It was a small dinner, but very 
pleasant. I wore a last year's gown, and Mrs. 
Stettinius, walking behind as we went out to 
dinner, said, "American dresses are prettier 
than French," which made me feel that it was 
quite conspicuous that my dress was not a new 
one. Nevertheless it was very pretty, silver 
cloth under a bright though dark blue net, 
trimmed with silver lace, the train being of 
black and silver brocade. I am still wearing it. 

I sat on Mr. Stettinius' right at dinner, and 
found him very interesting. He told me that he 
had been in the dugout of one of the German 
princes, where the fittings were quite as fine as 
those in the dining-room in which we were 
sitting — beautiful woodwork and flooring, 
stolen, I suppose, from some French chateau. 

A day or two before we had gone to a dinner 
at the American Embassy. As we came up the 
large stairway, we saw ranged across the hall a 
row of footmen, stretching from one end of it 
to the other, which looked quite imposing. The 
first person introduced to me was la Duchesse 
. I thought, "That is a very fine name," 

1:74] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

but after a few minutes' conversation with the 
lady I said to myself, "I have my doubts," and 
felt perfectly sure that she was an American. 
I was amused to find out afterwards that she 
had been the widow of an American manu- 
facturer whose factories were in Wilmington, 
and that Willard had represented them. She 
had had the German name of her first husband's 
son anglicized. 

I was taken out to dinner by a foreign Min- 
ister, and on the other side was an American 
oflUcer, Colonel Mott. I enjoyed the dinner very 
much. My Minister, whoever he was, spoke 
English. After dinner, I had a pleasant con- 
versation with two American girls. One, Mme. 
Brambilla, was the daughter of Mr. Myer, who 
was Secretary of the Navy; she had married 
an Italian attache who was very pleasant. The 
other, Mme. Caromilas, the wife of the Greek 
Minister, was a daughter of Senator Cockrell. 

About this time we also went to various teas, 
at the de Pelleports, at Madame Simon's, and 
at the Marquise de Chambrun's. The Marquis 
had met me thirty-five years before, after the 
celebration of the Battle of Yorktown, to which 
he was a delegate, being a great-grandson of 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

LaFayette. The Marquise is a daughter of 
the Bellamy Storers. At that tea we met the 
wife of the first Polish Minister to the United 
States, Princess Lubomirska, a very handsome 
and attractive woman, who, I am sure, will 
make herself popular in Washington. Willard 
was amused by having her say to him that she 
was glad they were going to Washington at a 
time when they would have only one presenta- 
tion. He did not understand at first what she 
meant, and she explained Newport and Wash- 
ington. He told her that she would find that 
Newport is as far from Washington as it is 
from Paris. 

Speaking of Madame Simon, I must mention 
that her apartment was filled with beautiful 
things which she had collected from the foreign 
countries in which she and her husband had been 
stationed. While in Mexico, M. Simon had 
been put in prison for twenty-four hours because 
he would not give up to the Mexicans money 
belonging to the French government. All the 
foreign Ambassadors and Ministers came to the 
prison and called on him, after which demon- 
stration the Mexicans released him. 

About a week before the fourteenth, Paris 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

commenced to prepare for the celebration. All 
along the Champs Elysees they were building 
scaffolding for seating people, not as high as we 
have seen them in this country, but quite deep. 
There was such a demand for seats that we 
heard it would cost us a thousand dollars to get 
a window or balcony from which to see the 
parade. 

About this time the newspapers were filled 
with protests against the erection of these seats 
— tribunes, as they call them — the argument 
being that nothing should be done to prevent 
the people of all classes from seeing the parade. 
It was one of the great examples shown us in 
Paris of the power of public opinion, that all 
these seats were taken away before the day of 
the parade. There was another very remark- 
able example of the power of the Press. The 
unions had threatened a twenty-four-hour strike 
of all transportation in France, to show what 
they could do, and the date was given some time 
in advance. Two or three days before, a very 
prominent physician in Paris published in the 
newspapers an appeal to the unions against it, 
made on the ground of the suffering to children, 
the sick, and the old, and illustrating the diffi- 

11773 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

culty of feeding children and the poor, and the 
impossibility of getting patients to hospitals, 
or administering any relief to people in need of 
care from physicians, etc. The next day the 
strike was called off. 



DS] 



CHAPTER VII 

OUR friends told us we had better go as 
soon as possible to see the devastation 
caused by the war, because the fields were rap- 
Idly growing up, sometimes weeds, but also 
crops, covering the effects of the shells. 
Madame Simon had said that she would like to 
go with us when we went to Rhelms. We 
started off one morning punctually at nine 
o'clock, picking her up at her apartment a few 
blocks away. 

After finding that we could not buy an Ameri- 
can car, we had made arrangements for getting 
a French automobile through the concierge at 
the hotel. 

He succeeded In finding for us a chauffeur 
who owned his own car. It was new, and 
although Wlllard and myself did not think 
much of It at first, because It did not compare 
with our own cars at home, so many people said 
to us, "Where did you get such a nice car?" 

1:79] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

that we soon came to the conclusion that we 
were very lucky, and were more than confirmed 
in that view after using it the entire time that 
we were in France. Not once was it out of 
commission, although at times we went over 
some very rough roads. The chauffeur was in 
every way satisfactory. 

This trip to Rheims was the first ride of any 
length which we had then taken. We went by 
way of Meaux, which recalled the anxiety we 
had felt when we heard that the Germans had 
reached that point, which was so close to Paris. 
The roads were good, and with the exception 
of seeing airdromes and the absence of people 
and live stock, the country looked about as 
usual to me. We lunched at Epernay, and that 
town seemed to be in very good condition, but 
soon we began to go through little villages 
which had been almost demolished. In that 
part of France, in fact I think in a great deal of 
France, the people who farm the land live in 
villages. 

I was told that they live where they can get 
good water. Also the laws of France oblige 
parents to divide their property in a certain 
way among their children, with the result that 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

there are narrow strips of land side by side 
each farmed by a different man. 

In speaking to my cousins of this difference 
from our farms, where there is a farmhouse 
in which the farmer lives, and perhaps one or 
two smaller houses on each farm, while the 
villages with us consist of the post-office and 
the blacksmith's shop, the doctor, and perhaps 
a few laborers and other people; and that in 
France they all live in the village and go out 
every morning to attend to their strip of land, 
and return to their houses when their work is 
over; I was told by Pierre de Pelleport that the 
French plan is not an economic one, because 
they often do not plant on their land the most 
suitable crop. A man will want to have his 
wheat made into his own bread, and his land 
may not be suitable for growing wheat. 

The effect of the devastation was that you 
saw occasionally a house by itself in the 
country which was apparently not injured, 
whereas the nearest village would be entirely 
destroyed, and the consequence was that those 
who tilled the land had no place to live. In 
most of the villages which we went through we 
would see possibly half a dozen houses habit- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

able in which the owners had put paper in the 
windows in place of the broken glass, and also 
temporary roofs of paper, and a few people 
were living there. Half a dozen people might 
be walking about, always some children. Other 
villages would be entirely destroyed, nobody 
visible. Still the fields were green, and it really 
looked as if they had been planted and that 
there was a chance of crops. 

When we arrived at Chateau-Thierry we 
felt very much thrilled because our soldiers had 
been victorious there. Although a great deal 
injured, business was still going on in the town, 
and it was not entirely demolished by any 
means. We crossed the river on a temporary 
bridge. Conditions seemed much alike every- 
where, the same story over and over, until we 
arrived at Rheims. Madame Simon evidently 
was afraid the chauffeur would lose his way, 
and every once in a while would call through 
the telephone, "Om sommes nous? Ou sommes 
nous?" 

When we arrived at Rheims, which before 
the war was a town of about one hundred and 
ten thousand people, I was very much surprised 
to see the streets apparently clear. The Ger- 

[82] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

man prisoners had been made to clear the 
stones out of the streets and from the pave- 
ments and pile them back against the houses, 
so that it was perfectly easy to drive through 
the town. 

It seemed strange to see the houses all de- 
molished, and yet be able to reach them so 
easily. I heard that 12,000 people were then 
living in Rheims, and there were many houses 
patched up with paper, but we saw very few, 
I cannot remember any, that were in perfect 
condition. That might be accounted for by 
the route which we took, as the cathedral was 
our main object. 

When we reached the cathedral, we left the 
car and spent a long time walking around and 
looking at it. One was not allowed to go very 
close on account of the danger of walls falling. 
From a distance, the west front of the cathedral 
looked fairly well, and you did not realize 
that it was only the general effect, and that 
although the outlines were there, the build- 
ing was only a shell and the beautiful stonework 
was terribly defaced. I was fortunate enough 
to have seen the cathedral before, and to have 
seen it with a young Frenchman, the Count de 

1:83: 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Choiseul. His aunt, Mrs. Forbes, and Miss 
Bramwell, were talking together, so I walked 
around with the young Frenchman, and I was 
very glad to have done so, because he showed 
so much feeling of affection and admiration for 
it. We studied the beautiful rose windows, and 
he called my attention to a number of the beauti- 
ful effects of the interior. 

When I first heard that the cathedral had 
been bombarded I felt in a rage about it, and 
I realized from the feeling shown by this young 
man what it must mean to the French people, 
as well as all civilized people in the world. 
I heard from two equally good authorities re- 
ports about the glass, one that the windows 
had been taken out before they were ruined, 
and the other that they were completely de- 
stroyed. All agreed that the cathedral would 
be rebuilt, but it would of course be absolutely 
impossible to restore the glass, as the modern 
glass does not compare with the old. I do not 
believe that it would be possible to restore a 
great deal of the stonework, because we no 
longer have the artisans who do such beautiful 
work. 

A great many of the people who were in 

1:843 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Rhelms were French working people, who had 
taken a day off to come to see the cathedral, as 
it was Sunday. We drove through a great 
many streets. One was a repetition of another. 
The houses of course are all built of stone, and 
are hundreds of years old. One realized that 
the destruction would be very much harder to 
repair than the same number of houses de- 
stroyed in one of our towns here. As a rule the 
front walls of the houses were standing, but no 
roofs, and nothing back of the front walls, just 
ghosts of homes. 

We did not stay very long at Rheims, for we 
had a long trip to make and wanted to return 
by the way of Belleau Woods. We motored 
through just about the same kind of country 
for many miles, and at last arrived at our desti- 
nation. On the way, our chauffeur suggested 
that we get out and look at a trench. I did 
not go, but Willard went. He said nothing 
when he returned to the car, but later told me 
that they found there the skeleton of a French 
soldier. We also saw a great many piles of 
ammunition and barbed wire, and we saw many 
graves along the roads. 

At the suggestion of Madame Simon, we 

1:853 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

gathered up a few of the shells to take home as 
souvenirs, and Willard bought two bayonets 
from a wounded soldier seated on the ground 
at the foot of Belleau Woods. A party of 
young men from the Y. M. C. A. arrived at 
Belleau Woods just as we did, and we had the 
advantage of hearing the lecture delivered to 
them. Strange to relate, the two young girls 
in uniform whom we had seen at Picpus Ceme- 
tery were there also. 

This hill is so steep that we could not imagine 
how a charge could have been made up its side. 
We did not attempt to walk up. After the lec- 
ture was over, we went to the cemetery, where 
several thousand American soldiers were buried. 
A very large American flag was flying. 

They were just completing the final inter- 
ment of these soldiers when we arrived there. 
Each grave had a cross at its head, and the 
name of the soldier, his regiment and rank. 
Some negro soldiers were at work, and one of 
them complained to Willard about having been 
given that work to do. By that time it was 
getting late and we started off on our return 
trip to Paris, which we reached about ten 
o'clock at night. As we came into Paris, I said 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

to Madame Simon something about the queer 
little houses that we saw, and how quaint Paris 
seemed to me; and she said, "You must remem- 
ber that Paris was here when Caesar came." 

A few days after that we made a trip to 
Soissons, Willard and myself alone. I do not 
feel sure that Soissons was not in a worse state 
of devastation than Rheims. Perhaps as it 
was a smaller place, and there was less of it 
remaining, it seemed very dreadful. The cathe- 
dral was a complete wreck, and it was all so 
desolate. 

As we were going to look at the cathedral, 
three middle-class French people came toward 
us and said in French, "German prisoners are 
in there, pretending to be asleep. Just lazy." 
We saw so many German prisoners afterwards 
that it seems strange now to think that we were 
so excited and went to take a look at them. 
They were lying in the grass, and had evidently 
had luncheon and were resting. 

After driving through the town of Soissons, 
we went on to the Chemin des Dames, from 
where we were told you could get a better effect 
of the ravages to the country itself than you 
could from any other point so near Paris. It 

CSvD 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

was interesting to see as we went along the 
roads many women with little barrows filled 
with grain which they had evidently cut from 
the roadsides, and had apparently grown up 
there like weeds. 

I saw a good many people in Soissons, and 
in other towns and villages quite a number of 
women, and none of them had hats, but they 
had on clean calico dresses, their hair was 
neatly brushed, and I wondered where they 
could find any place to sleep, or how they pos- 
sibly could have clean clothes or brush their 
hair or wash their faces. In looking at their 
houses, there seemed to be no place to find any 
privacy or any implements to do anything with. 

The road was very rough going up to the 
Chemin des Dames, and gave us some tremen- 
dous bumps. We carried some sardines and 
crackers and chocolate, and had luncheon in 
the car. Just as we finished we saw a very 
nice-looking woman with her barrow and her 
young son walking up a steep hill, and we de- 
cided to give them the remains of our luncheon, 
which we did. She thanked us very pleasantly 
and politely, of course in French, and said, 
"You have made us happy." 

CSS] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

From the top of the hill we had a magnificent 
view of the country, and saw the way the Ger- 
mans had dug in and lived in caves. We came 
back by way of Chantilly, and were very much 
disappointed to find that we could not go into 
the chateau because Marshal Foch had taken 
it for his headquarters, nor into the fine res- 
taurant where I had lunched years ago. 

We had a bad supper at a small hotel, and 
strange to relate, a cross, disagreeable land- 
lady. Our chauffeur refused to eat there, and 
said he would never take anyone there again. 

We made another trip about this time to 
Orleans, taking Major Ruffin with us. We 
went there to see a French soldier who had 
brought with him to America an introduction to 
me from la Marquise de Pelleport. He was a 
man thirty-six years old, a vicomte, and the 
son of a rich lace manufacturer near Roubaix; 
he had a wife and three young children, the 
youngest a baby when war was declared. He 
volunteered as a private, was taken prisoner 
at Lille, and escaped from his guards. Lille 
being a French town, he was able to get 
some civilian clothes, and after three days, in 
which he hid in haystacks and so forth, and 

[89] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

three nights, during which he crawled, he at last 
arrived In the British lines, his clothes in rags, 
where he was taken for a German spy, and 
only escaped being shot because there was some- 
one there who recognized him as a Frenchman. 
He had been very badly wounded at Verdun, 
had lost the sight of one eye, and had many 
other wounds. He had twice been in the hos- 
pital for six months, and had been sent to 
America to teach our soldiers machine-gun fir- 
ing. He was then after all those years of ser- 
vice an upper sergeant, but had received a 
number of decorations, six, I think. Among 
them was one for having escaped when he was 
a prisoner; another, la Croix de Guerre Beige 
avec Palme, which is the highest decoration for 
the battle of Ypres; and he told me that he 
preferred service to rank. 

He told Willard and myself in Washington 
that he had lost everything that he had in the 
world, but that he was better. He said, "I 
had had everything I wanted. I had never 
suffered. Now I have suffered, and I know 
how to sympathize with the sufferings of 
others." He said that nothing mattered, if 
only he could find his wife and children again. 

n9o:] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

He had not heard from them since the begin- 
ning of the war, but had heard of them through 
refugees, and knew they were alive, and that 
his father was held as a hostage by the Ger- 
mans. I realized that he was suffering terribly 
from loneliness. Although a gentleman and a 
highly educated man, having no rank he had 
no congenial companions. Willard liked him 
very much, but had difficulty in understanding 
him. I could understand his French and he 
could understand my way of speaking French, 
and he also understood some English, so I 
spoke a combination of French and English, 
and we talked for hours. I became very much 
interested in him, and had heard from him after 
he had returned to France, that his wife and 
children had been repatriated through Switzer- 
land. 

His mother-in-law died very soon afterwards 
from the effects of her hardships, and his wife 
and children were all sick, but he was happy to 
have them. They were living in two small 
rooms in Orleans. He was still in the service 
and stationed there. We left Major Ruffin at 
the hotel, and went to the house in which they 
lived on the second floor, and they gave us a 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

very good luncheon, his wife and the VIcomte 
waiting on table. The three little children, 
pretty little things, but small and thin for their 
ages, looked very delicate. 

Jean, the little boy, nine years old, had con- 
fided to his father that when he grows up he 
intends to be a nouveau-riche, and pastry cook; 
that he will have twenty-three children, twenty 
sons, soldiers for France, and three daughters. 
He will not have a wife, because wives are sick 
and suffer, which is sad. His mother had been 
desperately ill, and one realizes how natural 
these wishes were to a child who had gone 
through such experiences. It seems to me that 
the twenty sons to be soldiers for France is 
particularly pathetic coming from a tiny child 
who had lived behind the German lines. 

We came home by way of Chartres. There 
we found workmen putting back the glass in the 
windows of the cathedral, which is noted for 
its beauty. I had seen it before, but Willard 
had never been there, nor had Major Ruffin. 
Although I enjoyed very much seeing the beau- 
tiful glass again, I was even more impressed 
by the wonderful stonework, which really was 
lace made of stone. It seemed incredible that 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

it could be made to look so much like lace. 
When we had been in Chartres before, we went 
especially to see the glass, and I cannot remem- 
ber paying any special attention to this beautiful 
stonework. I could scarcely tear myself away, 
I wanted to go back and look at it over and 
over again. 

We had much better roads from Orleans to 
Chartres, and decided that we would stop at 
Rambouillet. The old fifteenth-century chateau 
is used now as a residence for the President 
of the Republic, when he comes to see the mili- 
tary school there. The chateau is partly fur- 
nished in the style of Napoleon, partly modern, 
and did not compare with a great many cha- 
teaux I have seen, but the effect of the landscape 
gardening is very beautiful, and somewhat like 
that of Versailles. There were a great many 
beautiful flowers, and we wandered about in 
the gardens. It was nearly sundown, and very 
peaceful — a pleasant change — and seemed re- 
mote from the horrors of war. 



1931 



CHAPTER VIII 

WHEN I think of describing the 14th of 
July, although it is all very vivid in my 
mind, I feel so inadequate to the occasion 
that I scarcely know how to begin. 

"The evening of July the 13th was conse- 
crated to the memory of the dead, — the heroic 
victims whose blood redeemed the recovered 
provinces and paid the price of liberty for their 
country and the world." 

A great monument, called a Cenotaph, had 
been erected under the Arc de Triomphe. We 
had watched them build this, and had wondered 
what it was going to be. As we were living not 
far from the Arc de Triomphe, we passed the 
Cenotaph every day. It was an enormous thing, 
and almost filled the arch. We did not go out 
on the evening of the 13th of July, and it would 
have been almost impossible for us to have seen 
anything, as an enormous crowd had gathered 
to attend the opening of the exercises. 

[1953 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

First the President of the Republic placed a 
wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph, then 
Clemenceau came and a great many of the 
dignitaries of France, all bearing flowers. All 
through the evening, and until very late at 
night, people came to pay homage to the dead. 
It was considered a marvelous thing to be able 
to move that great monument out from under 
the arch that night and place it beside the Arc 
de Triomphe in the course of a few hours. It 
was under the management of the army en- 
gineers. 

The day after the 14th everyone was al- 
lowed to visit the Cenotaph, and each person 
might bring one flower, to be placed at its foot. 

Late at night on the 13th crowds began to 
arrive in the streets where the parade was to 
pass, and it was said that the population of 
Paris was doubled that day. It was a marvel 
that they were able to feed all those people, 
and many of them slept in the streets. They 
came carrying ladders and folding-chairs. The 
crowd was very considerate and good-natured. 
At eight o'clock on the morning of the 14th 
there were some ceremonies at the Hotel de 
Ville, the giving of decorations, but we did 

1:963 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

not see it. The great event was the parade, 
and that was what everybody was looking for- 
ward to. 

M. Clemenceau wrote to Marshal Petain, 
"Qui de nous a vu ce jour a vecu!* 

I wish that I could adequately describe the 
decorations, they were so wonderfully beauti- 
ful. Ulllustration says, "The best stereotypes 
would give one but a vague and incomplete 
idea of the grace and gayety of these long 
alignments of twin masts, adorned with wings 
of gold and with green laurel, united by long 
streamers of tricolored draperies. The masts 
were white, delicately outlined with gold. . . . 
At the Place de la Concorde, the masts, which 
rose to gigantic heights, were outlined in red 
and gold. The street lamps were covered with 
transparencies formed of little blue, red and 
white ribbons. . . . Never had this incompar- 
able frame received a more brilliant adornment, 
which embellished without detracting from it. 
The obelisk itself filled the office of a gigantic 
mast, 33 metres high. On this column worn 
by the ages audacious carpenters had attached 
garlands of golden foliage and supple electric 
bands, which sparkled in the evening in gar- 

1:973 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

lands of purple. The red color of the illu- 
minations formed a bond of union between the 
different designs, and brought the decorations 
into union." 

What the French called twin masts were ex- 
tremely tall, slight wooden poles, two placed 
about eighteen inches apart, joined together at 
a height of about twenty feet by different de- 
signs, an escutcheon, or a round design, with 
R. F. for Republique Frangaise. Just above 
were wings of gold and laurel, and from these 
were bands of tricolored ribbons or etamine 
stretched to the next mast, and then possibly 
ten or fifteen feet higher up a cord from which 
flew little pennants of different colors. 

The Arc de Triomphe was surrounded by 
two rows of large cannon captured from the 
Germans, facing outward from the arch. 

At Rond Point were four altars in honor of 
the martyred cities, Verdun, Rheims, Soissons 
and Arras. The two large parterres at this 
point were piled high with small cannon cap- 
tured from the Germans, on the top of one of 
which was a great victorious cock. These piles 
of cannon were festooned around with garlands 
of colored etamine. 

n983 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Early in July seats had been erected In the 
streets and avenues along the line of the parade, 
but the newspapers were full of protests against 
them, and L' Illustration says, "Moved by a 
sentiment of equality and fairness, in order that 
the greatest number should see the parade, at 
the last moment the seats had been taken down, 
and for the whole length of the Champs Elysees 
as far as the Porte Maillot wooden rails were 
placed which reduced considerably the width 
of that magnificent avenue, and limited the 
space reserved for the parade, and prevented 
the crowding forward of spectators." 

We had almost given up hopes of seeing the 
parade, when an American friend of Willard's, 
Major Ruffin, stationed at his Paris head- 
quarters in the Champs Elysees Palace Hotel, 
told us that he had asked his colonel if we 
could come there, and he very kindly reserved a 
balcony for us. 

The morning of the 14th of July we rose 
early and had a light breakfast. A few other 
people were in the dining-room, among others 
the Colville Barclays (Counselor of the British 
Embassy at Washington) , whom we had known 
all the time that we were in Washington. He 

1:99] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

had just been relieved and later made Minister 
to Sweden. Mrs. Barclay is a beauty, and very 
sweet. 

We were very much discouraged as we were 
starting off to see the parade to meet the Mar- 
quise de Chambrun and her young son coming 
to the hotel. Although they had any quantity 
of "permissions" to cross the streets, it had 
been absolutely impossible for her to cross the 
Champs Elysees, and she had given it up and 
had come to the hotel to see her parents. It 
seems as if the luck which had followed us 
throughout our trip was still with us, for we 
were able to go within a block of our destina- 
tion in our own car, and walked that block with 
no difficulty whatever. 

Of course the streets were very crowded, but 
the crowd was orderly. 

At the Elysees Palace Hotel we were met by 
Major Ruffin, who was very smiling, he was so 
pleased to have been able to do us this kind- 
ness. We walked up about four long flights of 
steps, and after passing through one or two 
rooms, were escorted out on a balcony on which 
there were not more than three or four other 
people, and from which we had a most magnifi- 
Cioo] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

cent view. We were high enough to look over 
the tops of the trees. The avenue is so wide 
that the trees did not obstruct the view of the 
parade at all. To the left we had a clear view 
to the Arc de Triomphe, and to the right we 
had an absolutely unobstructed view as far as 
our eyes could see. 

I wish I could tell you how I felt during the 
parade. I never felt so awed and thrilled in 
my life, and I have come to the conclusion that 
in addition to the fact that anyone capable of 
sentiment would have been almost overpowered 
by such a display and an occasion that meant 
so much to France and to the entire world, my 
French blood also increased my enthusiasm. I 
have remembered that when the Bastille fell a 
number of my family were in Paris. My great- 
great-uncle, the Marquis de Pelleport, tried to 
save the life of Major Losme Solbay, one of 
the officers in command of the Bastille, who had 
been kind to him when he was imprisoned 
there. He was wounded and carried away after 
this officer had begged him to save himself. 
This is described in various accounts of the fall 
of the Bastille. My great-great-grandfather, 
duPont de Nemours, was there also, and took 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

an active part in the government. He was also 
imprisoned later, and his life only saved by the 
death of Robespierre. My great-grandfather 
and grandmother were there, his brother, and 
doubtless other members of my family, and per- 
haps the very exciting times through which they 
lived may have made more of an impression on 
their descendants than would otherwise have 
been possible. 

My father had a very strong affection for 
the French, and felt the Franco-German War 
so much he would not have his children taught 
German. 

To go back to the balcony on the Champs 
Elysees Palace Hotel, we stood there for more 
than three hours, probably the most thrilling 
three hours that I have ever passed. From 
time to time officers strolled out on our balcony. 
Two young clerks nearly scared me to death by 
climbing over the railing and sitting on a pro- 
jection from the wall in order to see better. 
They probably had not enough rank to entitle 
them to a good view of the parade. 

We were not close enough to see the mutilees, 
but at a luncheon at the home of the Counselor 
of our Embassy and Mrs. Robert Bliss, when a 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

lady spoke to me of seeing them, her voice 
broke and tears came into her eyes. 

I translate from L' Illustration, "A thousand 
mutilees headed the procession, a great, noble, 
touching idea. All hats were raised. An im- 
pressive silence fell. Some vague cries — 'This 
is too painful!' — voices choked. One would 
have liked to kneel, but there was the crowd, 
and whether or no for hours it was necessary 
to stand, propped up on all sides. Oh, what a 
group ! The first to strike the eye, a poor 
sublime invalid stretched on a carriage, and 
already half buried under flowers. Near him, 
in a rolling chair, another was being pushed. 
Then came the lame, leaning on canes, dragging 
their legs; masked men, scarred, disfigured, 
shapeless, so pitiful. . . . Now, the blind, wav- 
ing flags whose brilliant colors they will never 
see again, and who were led by the arm by 
comrades a little less unfortunate than them- 
selves. Touching brotherhood in misfortune! 
No, in truth, words cannot express our feelings 
at this moment; nothing can, but tears. 

**With scarcely enough time to recover from 
the emotion caused by the passing of the 
mutilees, with a flourish of trumpets, came the 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Garde Republique, which formed the escort of 
honor for the two marshals, Joffre at the left, 
at the right Foch, the commander-in-chief of 
the armies of the civilized world. The staffs 
of the inter-allied armies followed the flag of 
the commander-in-chief. Then for three hours 
the soldiers passed by, first the American Gen- 
eral Pershing and his battalion of soldiers, 
strong and supple, a cohort carefully chosen, 
marching elbow to elbow, with a regularity, a 
sort of automatism, worthy of those classic 
pictures of Epinal, who popularized with us the 
love of fine soldiers, and commenced our patri- 
otic education. . . . Then the sailors, pictur- 
esque, correct, with their funny little white caps, 
their grey gaiters and starred collars. . . . 
The Belgians followed, behind General Gillain. 
. . . Then came the British. This was the 
culminating moment of our dreams. At the 
head. Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Sir Henry 
Rawlinson, Sir Julian Byng, General Curry in 
the Canadian Corps; then two hundred stand- 
ards, their silk bronzed by the sun. . . . Next 
comes General Montuori, leading the Italian 
army; Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Poles, Portu- 
guese, Roumanians, Serbians, all that remained 
[1043 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

of a martyred people, and last of all, the 
Siamese, and the Czecho-Slovaks. A space, a 
silence — Here come the heroes of France! 
This was the moment for which we were wait- 
ing. First, the Marshal of France, Petain; 
then came Generals Castelnau, Gouraud, Hir- 
schauer, Humbert, Mangan, Maistre, Degoutte, 
Bayolle, and many others. 

"General Castelnau, superb in the saddle, 
had the place of honor, due to his great ser- 
vices and the sad tribute he had paid in the 
gift of his dear children to beloved France." 

We stood a few minutes after the parade 
had passed by, thanking the colonel for his 
courtesy, and said good-by. We soon found 
our car and returned to the hotel. We were 
feeling quite hungry, and went immediately to 
get some lunch. Of course everybody had been 
to see the parade, but the waiters were back 
again and the head waiter came up to us and 
said, "The American soldiers marched the 
best." We tried to be as modest about it as 
Americans can be, but could not help agreeing 
with him. This was absolutely conceded, their 
marching was marvelous. A lady who had seen 
them make the turn at the Place de la Concorde 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

said that it was really wonderful. Looking at 
them after they had passed, they were just like 
a checkerboard, you saw the lines in every direc- 
tion absolutely perfect. Several Frenchmen 
said to us that their men were looking for their 
friends on the sidewalks, but the English, while 
wholly conceding to our men the best marching, 
explained it by saying that ours were picked 
men. 

In the evening we went out to see the illu- 
minations. We walked down to the Pont 
d'Alma, which was not far from the hotel. The 
streets were very quiet, and the people were 
watching the illumination. They were doubt- 
less tired out after the excitement of the past 
two days, and if there were any hilarious 
demonstrations we did not see them. The 
effect of the fireworks was very beautiful. 

We returned to the hotel, went up on the 
roof and stayed there for quite a long time, 
watching the far-off illuminations which we had 
not been able to see from the street. 

And so ended for us this wonderful day. 



1:1063 



CHAPTER IX 

WE were urged by a friend, Colonel 
Horton, to go as soon as possible to see 
the devastated regions, because Nature was so 
rapidly covering up the battlefields with wild 
growth. A young officer whose special work at 
that time was to make arrangements for Ameri- 
can officials to see the devastated regions, to 
make reservations for them, and to give them 
advice, came to see Willard and talked the 
matter over with him. This was a very great 
help to us, and we arranged to start off in a 
couple of days in our car. We were absent 
from Paris about fourteen days. 

I had been asked by a dressmaker who had 
worked for me for many years to try to visit 
the grave of her nephew who had been killed 
in the war, and I told her we would do so if it 
were possible. She gave us the name of the 
young man and of the cemetery where he was 
burled. We decided to make a visit to this 
spot at the first opportunity, and arranged to 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

spend the first night of our expedition at 
Chalons-sur-Marne, a third-century town. It 
is not very far from Paris, possibly fifty miles, 
and we reached there early in the afternoon. 
The hotel in which we stayed had no front wall, 
a shell having burst in the street and knocked 
down the front of the hotel and that of the 
house on the opposite side. It was boarded up, 
however, and the people who lived there did 
not even speak of it. We had two large rooms, 
no bath of course, but good beds, and in spite 
of the fact that the electric lights went out that 
night and we had nothing but candles, we were 
very comfortable and rather glad that the front 
of the house had been blown out, as it seemed 
a suitable beginning to our trip. 

As I said, we arrived there early in the after- 
noon, and at once went to a florist's and bought 
a pot of blooming flowers, pretty pink flowers, 
and also a little cross to put on the grave. The 
hospital in which the young man had died was 
not very far away from Chalons, a drive of 
three quarters of an hour, perhaps, and we had 
no difficulty in finding it. The hospitals were 
long rows of one-storied wooden buildings, 
many of them in the same enclosure. 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

When we arrived, we were told that the car 
could not go inside because the hospital build- 
ings were filled with German prisoners, so we 
were obliged to walk what would probably be 
two or three of our town blocks, which brought 
us to a pine wood, fortunately very dense, as it 
began to pour rain, and we had no shelter or 
even umbrella. So we stayed under the pine 
trees and waited until the rain was over. The 
cemetery close beside this beautiful grove of 
pines was in perfect order. It had a wire fence 
around it, and on the opposite side from the 
wood one looked over a splendid stretch of 
beautiful country. It was really an ideal spot. 

Most of the graves were those of French 
soldiers, each having a black cross at the head. 
They were covered with wreaths and crosses, 
mostly of artificial flowers which the French use 
so much. There was a walk through the center 
of the cemetery and one diagonally nearer the 
upper end, making a cross, and at the farther 
end were a few rows of white crosses which 
marked the graves of the Americans, on each 
of which was a small American flag. With 
very little difficulty, as they were all numbered, 
we found the grave we were looking for. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Our French chauffeur had come with us, 
carrying the pot of flowers, and Willard carried 
the cross. With the reverence of all French 
people for the dead, our chauffeur had taken off 
his hat as we entered the graveyard, and stood 
with it in his hand all the time we were there. 

The American graves, as I said, had white 
crosses at the head and the French had black 
crosses. All the French graves had wreaths 
on them, showing that friends had been there 
to visit them. A black cross like those at the 
head of the French graves had been laid on 
those of the Americans, to keep them from 
looking bare and uncared for, as they would 
have done in comparison with those of the 
French. 

We put the pot of flowers at the foot of the 
boy's grave and the cross at the head, and stood 
there for a while, I thinking that his mother 
should feel proud and contented that her boy 
should be buried there, it was such a beautiful 
and peaceful spot. 

We went to bed soon after dinner, to prepare 
for an early start the next morning, and a long 
and somewhat hard ride to Verdun. 

Imagine how I felt — actually going to Ver- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

dun — the place whrch for months had been in 
my thoughts every minute, hoping against hope 
that the French soldiers' vow, "They shall not 
pass," would prove true. We had good views 
of some of the battlegrounds, and it seemed 
almost impossible for the army ever to have 
held on, or to have scaled the heights of some 
of those mountainous places. We went through 
a great many destroyed villages like the ones 
we had already seen, just piles of stone. Some- 
times we would see a few people, sometimes 
none, and in one place, where I had not seen a 
single living soul, I saw two little boys of about 
ten years old playing see-saw. They had put a 
plank over an old stone wall which had been 
a house, and were apparently entirely alone in 
the village. We stopped at a temporary build- 
ing of a Y. M. C. A. to ask the way, and an 
extremely nice-looking young English girl came 
out and gave us the directions to Verdun. We 
lost our way several times, and on the worst 
roads you could imagine we retraced our steps 
three times. At one place I was thrown 
against the top of the car so hard that it hurt 
me very much, and I thought might have broken 
my neck. 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

At that place there were a lot of German 
prisoners at work exhuming and gathering up 
the bodies of the dead, and we saw great piles 
of wooden coffins. 

I ask myself why I speak of this young girl. 
In former times when I had been in France 
the villages were full of people. One saw not 
only the villagers standing at their doors, and 
walking about the street, but many dogs and 
chickens, and going about through the country 
you saw all sorts of live things, cattle in the 
fields, and horses, and passed many conveyances 
of all kinds, the farmers going to their work, 
people motoring and driving and riding, but 
through all our rides this year we had seen no- 
body and nothing. Excepting the occasional few 
people in the villages, we saw no living crea- 
tures, and in the whole time that we were 
motoring through the devastated parts of 
France or around Paris, we did not pass, as I 
can remember, a single private motor. We saw 
many army cars and many trucks carrying sol- 
diers or perhaps German prisoners (and, by the 
way, we recognized the German prisoners by 
their green coats) . Generally these men looked 
very young, almost boys, fair, not bad-looking 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

young fellows. We generally saw them coming 
home in bands from their work. They were 
employed in all sorts of ways, such as gathering 
up arms and bombs and clearing up the streets 
of the devastated villages and towns. In one 
place we were warned off of the road because 
they were going to blow up shells, and a few 
minutes after we heard great explosions, and 
saw smoke rise high in the air, not a great dis- 
tance away. 

At last we arrived at Verdun, and as we were 
driving across the little bridge at the entrance 
of the town I could scarcely believe that I was 
actually there at last. My impression was after 
seeing the town that, although there was a great 
deal of destruction, it was a place that would 
be rebuilt; there was business going on and 
people living there. It had an entirely different 
look from most of the towns or villages we had 
passed through — we wondered if they would 
ever be rebuilt, or if there was any particular 
reason why they should be. 

We left our car near the hotel, which was 
habitable although not in perfect condition. It 
had some guests, but I think only army officers, 
or people having some special work in Verdun, 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

would have been received there. I heard after- 
wards that the newspaper correspondent of 
whom I spoke as having come over on the 
steamer with us, had made a trip to Verdun and 
had been obliged to spend the night under- 
ground in the Citadel — rather an uncomfortable 
experience, I should think. 

Speaking of Miss Adler suggests some things 
I have heard about the Y. M. C. A. and the 
Y. W. C. A. I had felt a good deal of inter- 
est in the criticism which was being made at 
home of the Y. M. C. A., and came over 
on the steamer with a Unitarian minister who 
was connected with an important New England 
newspaper, and who was sent over to investi- 
gate the Y. M. C. A. Afterwards I saw him in 
Paris and he was very happy in regard to the in- 
vestigations which he had made. He had met a 
great many people who could tell him about it, 
and he had a great many opportunities to learn 
what the Y. M. C. A. had accomplished abroad. 
He was convinced that they had done a great 
work, some of it very wonderful — actually hav- 
ing things made when they could not get them 
otherwise. My impression was that he was 
satisfied they had done the best that was pos- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

sible under the circumstances; necessarily they 
had not the pick of the best men, as the best 
all-around men had gone into the active 
service. They had to be disquaUfied in some 
way to take that work — either too old, or not 
well, or something — and there was a tremen- 
dous number of them needed. In that number 
there were bound to be some who were not 
satisfactory, and in such a great work there 
would necessarily be some mistakes made. I 
did not hear a great deal about the Y. W. C. A., 
nor did I hear much about women's work in 
France, with the exception of nursing. Every- 
one who had occasion to speak of them was 
enthusiastic in regard to the work done by 
nurses. They thought nothing could be too good 
to say about them. My impression was that 
there was a difference of opinion in regard to 
the canteen; some thought that it was coddling 
the soldiers too much. I heard some things 
said very favorable to women's work in con- 
nection with the Y. M. C. A. In regard to the 
motor work, they said it was absolutely un- 
necessary, there were plenty of men to do that 
work. 

I have written nothing in regard to the 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Y. W. C. A. because while in France I heard 
little about it, and that not particularly en- 
couraging, but am happy to say since my return 
I have met Admiral Wilson, who was in com- 
mand of the Navy Forces at Brest, and who 
spoke of their work for the sailors in the most 
complimentary way. 

To return to Verdun. We took a little walk 
about town. I was a little ahead of Willard, 
when I saw a very drunken Frenchman coming 
toward me, holding out his hand. I thought 
it best to shake hands with him, which amused 
Willard very much. Before coming up to me 
he had shaken hands with a German prisoner. 

Then we took our car again, and went in 
search of the Y. M. C. A. building, to find out 
what we had better see first. Nobody was 
visible but a child of about ten or twelve years 
old, who called a woman, who came forward; 
and there seemed to be a great deal of embar- 
rassment when we asked to see the superintend- 
ent. He was upstairs, they said, and would 
be down in a few minutes. Just then a great 
tall French officer came out, evidently under the 
weather from "looking on the wine when it was 
red." He bowed politely, and then passed on. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

We then looked up and saw an American in 
uniform, evidently in the same condition, just 
staring down at us with a stupid expression. 
We decided to leave the building and look for 
information somewhere else. These were the 
only three intoxicated men we saw in all France. 
We then went to the Bishop's Palace, which 
had a beautiful view from its terrace, but was 
nearly destroyed by bombardment and fire. 
Many of its walls were down, and it was un- 
inhabitable at that time. Then we drove to 
the Citadel, and a French soldier was detailed 
to show us through. Most of it was under- 
ground, long passages perfectly dark. Our 
guide turned on electric lights so that we could 
see to walk around. These underground pas- 
sages accommodated many thousands of sol- 
diers. We were shown the sleeping-rooms, and 
where they dined, and where they could sit 
for recreation; of course these were all just 
long passages with arched roofs. (In one of 
them we met a soldier who had been polishing 
shells, and we bought two of them from him, 
as well as a little medal with "Verdun" on it.) 
The Citadel seemed very gloomy and very un- 
inviting, but I have no doubt when the town 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

was being shelled it was very satisfactory to 
have a refuge of that kind. 

We then left Verdun, as it was necessary for 
us to reach Luxembourg that evening. The 
road was good, and we had a very comfortable 
ride. We were sometimes in doubt as to the 
direction, but there were many army cars pass- 
ing, and we occasionally asked our way. Soon 
after asking the direction from an officer who 
was standing on the road beside an army car 
(and these cars had passed us, being faster than 
we were) we found them waiting at the bottom 
of a hill to tell us what road to take, for they 
thought we might be in doubt, and they told 
us that just behind was the entrance to one 
of the Crown Prince's dugouts, and advised our 
going to see it, as it was a great curiosity. We 
were afraid to delay at all, and if we had 
known that we had just barely enough time to 
reach Luxembourg and be allowed to enter the 
city, we would have been more uneasy than we 
were. We arrived at the gate where the cus- 
toms officer met us a few minutes before seven, 
and heard that after seven we would not have 
been able to enter. 

We soon arrived at a very good hotel, where 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

our young American officer had engaged rooms 
for us. Although we were only two days from 
Paris, we had seen so much desolation and 
misery we felt it was quite marvelous to go into 
a luxurious hotel, with big rooms, a fine bath- 
room, a good supper, and everything very pleas- 
ant and normal. 

The next day we drove through the town for 
an hour or more. We had never been there be- 
fore, and thought it a very beautiful place, very 
quaint and old, beautiful little views here and 
there, and handsome buildings — altogether we 
were quite charmed with it. 



[:"93 



CHAPTER X 

WE then started off for Coblenz. Willard 
was sitting out with the chauffeur, as 
usual, and I was by myself. We drove along 
the banks of the Moselle for many miles, until 
I felt I simply must say something to Willard 
about it. I blew on the horn to attract his 
attention, and said, "Willard, I think this is one 
of the most beautiful rides I ever took in my 
life." He fully agreed with me. Both sides 
of the river were terraced all the way up to the 
top and planted with vines. Mountains on both 
sides, little villages here and there, all in per- 
fect condition, with little boxes of blooming 
geraniums at the windows. If we stopped a 
minute for any cause, the car would be sur- 
rounded by German children, which would have 
been a bad advertisement for the circulars beg- 
ging "milk for German babies" — all were fat 
and rosy. 

Early in the afternoon we stopped at a hotel 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

in Treves to get some lunch. It was an at- 
tractive place, where we had a good lunch and 
took a little walk afterwards along the river, 
before starting again for Coblenz. At one 
point we were obliged to cross the river on a 
raft, and had our first experience with German 
marks. Willard exchanged some French money 
with the Germans on the raft, and was aston- 
ished to get so many marks for his francs. 
Every mile of this ride from Luxembourg to 
Coblenz was beautiful, as beautiful as any I 
had ever taken in my life, perhaps excepting 
the ride to the Pah in Honolulu, and from Nice 
to Monte Carlo in France. 

We expected to stay with Colonel Holcomb, 
who won much distinction in fighting with the 
Marines at Chateau-Thierry and the other 
places where they did so well. We were to 
meet in Coblenz, and drove up to the American 
Headquarters. Willard went in to inquire 
where to find Colonel Holcomb. We knew 
that he was established in some old castle near 
the town. Willard was away quite a time, and 
when he returned he asked me to go in, and I 
was quite dismayed to hear that Colonel Hol- 
comb had been ordered home. Fortunately, 
[122] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

General Harts, whom we had known quite well 
in Washington, was there, and the commanding 
officer. General Allen, was very polite to us. 
They were both in the Headquarters at that 
time. 

I said to General Harts, "Is Mrs. Harts 
here? I suppose very few of the ladies have 
come over," and he said, "No, Mrs. Saulsbury, 
you are unique, you are the only one who is 
here." They told me that it was against the 
regulations, but they would make an exception 
in my favor, and take me in at Headquarters. 
After awhile the housekeeper came. She had 
found a room for us — a fine large room. I was 
feeling very uncomfortable, not for myself, but 
for fear I would be in the way; but just at that 
moment appeared the young officer who had 
arranged for our trip, bringing the good news 
that he had billeted us in a German castle. 
We walked with him and another officer over to 
this place, which was only a short distance. 

The building was the residence of the over- 
president of the province, and was where the 
Kaiser stayed when he came to Coblenz. It 
occupied an entire block. We went in and 
walked up the marble steps to the third floor, 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

and were shown a number of large rooms. A 
young girl, the daughter of the over-president, 
appeared. She spoke English very well, and 
was polite. I chose two rooms and a bath- 
room. We stayed there for four days, had a 
dead-latch key and a special entrance. There 
were evidently a number of entrances, and we 
never saw anyone, excepting servants, other 
than this young lady and her sister, who ap- 
peared when we could not make our wants 
known to the maids, who did not understand 
any English. There was an electric elevator 
which we used, and which saved us the long 
walk up and down stairs, for the ceilings were 
very high. 

They told us the Kaiser occupied these rooms 
when he stayed there. We had no bad dreams, 
saw no ghosts. I was amused to imagine how 
furious he would be if he knew Americans were 
there under these circumstances. 

The rooms were very simply furnished, but 
large and comfortable. I said I was in the 
habit of taking a warm bath at night. We were 
told that they only had hot water in the bath- 
room in the morning, so I took my bath when 
I arose. One night I was awakened by a tre- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

mendous noise; it sounded as if the walls were 
shaking, and I wakened Willard. We decided 
that it was probably an overheated boiler. So 
we opened the faucet in the bathroom, let 
the steam come out, and finally the noise 
stopped. I sent for the young lady in the morn- 
ing and learned that they had been having the 
water heated at night for me. I was sorry to 
have had them do this, as they were short of 
coal. 

The next day we went to Ehrenbreitstein. 
Willard had wanted to come to Coblenz espe- 
cially to see our flag flying over that great 
German fortress, and an enormous one it was. 
He also wanted to see the American soldiers 
in command of a German city. The colonel of 
the fort took us to the ramparts, from which 
we had a wonderful view. We walked partly 
around the fort — went inside, and saw a little 
of it. The colonel was very kind and polite. 
A lot of young men were taking lessons in 
firing from the ramparts. 

After that, we went to see the great statue 
of William I. This is an enormous equestrian 
statue on a point where the Moselle and the 
Rhine flow side by side. You can distinctly see 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

the water of the two rivers flowing side by side, 
one sand colored and the other blue. They say 
the waters of the French Moselle will not mix 
with the German Rhine. Altogether, Coblenz 
is a very attractive, handsome city. We went 
to the Y. M. C. A. building, and wandered 
about through the town. 

The next day, our kind young officer took us 
to Cologne in an army car, giving our chauffeur 
a chance to overhaul ours, which had gone over 
some pretty rough roads since we left Paris. 
Speaking of the chauffeur, I must explain that 
he was unable to get accommodations until he 
was billeted by our officer — or to get any ac- 
commodation for our car. It would have been 
absolutely impossible for us to have gone to 
Coblenz under any other circumstances. 

Before we reached Cologne, we were stopped 
by a British sentry, and had to get permission 
to go on into Cologne. 

The way to Cologne was very lovely, along 
the river, and a very good road. We reached 
there at lunch time, and lunched in the British 
officers' club, which was in a German club- 
house. Had a very good luncheon, and saw a 
number of English ladies with the British offi- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

cers. After luncheon, we went to the cathedral, 
which we neither of us had ever seen, and were 
very much impressed by its size. I did not 
think It was as beautiful as the French cathe- 
drals in detail. Then we rode back again to 
Coblenz, seeing the beautiful scenery from an- 
other viewpoint. 

The following day we motored to Bad Ems, 
another very beautiful ride along the river and 
through the hills. This Is a fashionable Ger- 
man watering-place, which was then under the 
command of the French. We amused ourselves 
watching the French soldiers rowing on the 
river. Quite a number of the guests from the 
hotels were also amusing themselves rowing. 
This was the only occasion on which we saw 
ladies In summer gowns during the whole sum- 
mer. After a very delightful luncheon, we rode 
back to Coblenz late In the afternoon, the view 
being equally fine from that direction. 

One of the interesting things we saw In 
Coblenz while out walking was a regiment of 
French soldiers passing through the streets. 
They were unarmed, undoubtedly off for a little 
holiday. We stood on the edge of the pave- 
ment to watch them go by, and the expression 

[127] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

of their faces was very interesting under the 
circumstances. It was a modified expression of 
"the cat that swallowed the canary." The chil- 
dren stood on the sidewalks to see the soldiers 
go by, but the grown people pretended not to 
see them at all. 

Immediately before the arrival of our sol- 
diers at Coblenz, posters were placed every- 
where by the authorities warning the populace 
that American soldiers were coming and that 
they must be very careful not to provoke them 
in any way, and warned them that the results 
of any unpleasant behavior on their part would 
bring about very serious consequences. When 
the Germans found our soldiers perfectly well 
behaved and offering them no insults, they 
thought they were afraid of them and com- 
menced to be impertinent, and it was necessary 
for our men to give them a little setting down, 
which reduced them to their previous subser- 
viency. 

An interesting story was told us of our sol- 
diers' disapproval of the want of politeness 
shown by the German men to women. It Is. 
the custom for German women to give up their 
seats in the street cars to men, and our boys 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

would rise and offer theirs to the women, who 
were beginning to demand the same courtesy 
from their mankind. It reminds me of the 
story told of some Germans traveling in this 
country with their wives, and one saying his 
wife did not like our sleeping cars because she 
objected to the upper berth. An American 
offered his lower berth to her, to which the 
husband objected, as "interfering with domestic 
discipline." 

While at Coblenz we lunched and dined at 
a hotel where we sat out-of-doors on a porch, 
and found things very good to eat, and very 
well served. We were surrounded by German 
people, men and women. We breakfasted in 
the officers' mess, where they were supposed 
to have American breakfasts, buckwheat cakes 
and syrup, fried eggs, bacon, and coffee or tea, 
also a cereal if you wanted it. The last day 
we were in Coblenz, Willard said to me, "You 
know these people think that we are Germans," 
meaning the Americans and the French, "be- 
cause we are the only people in Coblenz not in 
uniform excepting the Germans." I wore a pin 
of three small flags together, American, French 
and English, but it was very tiny, and I was 

1:1293 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

sorry that it was not three times as big, so that 
people could see it plainly. 

On the last morning, arriving for breakfast, 
we found a middle-aged American woman in 
uniform already in the dining-room. She called 
across the room to us, "Are you Americans?" 
I said, "Yes." Going over to her table, I told 
her what Willard had said about people think- 
ing we were Germans. She told me that she 
had been in Serbia for a couple of years and 
had come to Coblenz to see her son who was 
stationed there. It was very important for her 
to see him on account of some business, as well 
as for personal reasons, but the day before she 
arrived he had left, being ordered to America. 
She had agreed to serve six months longer in 
Serbia, and was obliged to return there, and 
was naturally very much disturbed and worried 
at missing her son after so long an absence, 
and at not having been able to arrange her 
business affairs with him. We talked a little 
across from our table to hers, and when she 
left she came over and said good-by. Her last 
words were, "It certainly has been a pleasure 
to see an American woman not in uniform I" 



CHAPTER XI 

EARLY the next morning we left for Liege. 
The road was very bad, and in some 
places really dangerous. They were making 
repairs, and it was very slippery and seemed 
unending. We rode for hours through a wood 
in the mud, and it was a great relief to me 
when we reached a dry road, for the one thing 
I am nervous about in motoring is skidding. 

I suppose about twelve o'clock that day we 
reached a point where we were stopped first by 
an English guard and then a Belgian, and we 
realized that we were in Belgium. Willard 
talked to an English soldier who was leaning 
out of a cottage window — a mere boy — whose 
hopes were centered on soon going home. Soon 
after we reached Spa. We left our car, and 
walked about the streets, bought some post- 
cards, and investigated the place. Spa is a very 
attractive watering-place, and seemed in per- 
fectly good shape, nothing injured about it. 

1:131: 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Toward evening we reached Liege. 

There we had quarters in a hotel, not of the 
best, but comfortable enough, and after supper 
we went out and walked about through the 
streets. It is an interesting old place, appar- 
ently not injured at all by the war. 

I had the misfortune of losing a little pearl 
and diamond pin which I had brought with me 
as making a useful finish to my dress and suit- 
able to wear on almost any occasion, as I did 
not wish to carry much jewelry. I felt that I 
might have lost it at Spa or at Liege, but al- 
though we advertised in the papers, and offered 
a reward before leaving the hotel, and although 
the hotel keeper was very nice about it and 
afterwards wrote to us in Paris, I never heard 
anything of it again. 

The next morning we left for Brussels. 

We stopped for a time at Louvain to see the 
famous Town Hall and the ruins of the 
University and Library, the destruction of 
which had caused the amazement and hor- 
ror of the civilized world, which had not 
before that half believed the reports told of 
the Hun. After a very good ride and a pretty 
one, we reached Brussels in time for lunch. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Brussels looked just like Paris — not injured in 
any way, as far as we could see. We were 
surprised to find it in such perfect condition. 
We saw no signs of destruction, but we found 
afterwards that the Germans had stolen a great 
many things in Brussels. They had stolen all 
the brasses out of the houses, the doorknobs 
and kitchen utensils, and a great deal of ma- 
chinery out of the factories. Brussels had 
suffered very much, but not in a way that was 
visible to persons just arrived in the city. As 
the Germans had expected to keep Belgium, 
they did not destroy that portion of it. 

We went to the Palace Hotel in which rooms 
had been reserved for us. It was a large hand- 
some building, and we had two fine bedrooms, 
two bathrooms and a drawing-room. As soon as 
we had brushed up a little, we went down to get 
some lunch, and whom should we see in the hotel 
but Colonel Horton, whom we had known very 
well in Washington. He was going to leave 
for Paris that night, but said he would dine 
with us. This was very pleasant, and we en- 
joyed seeing him again, and hearing about his 
experiences. He was then making a trip of 
inspection to all the great cemeteries where 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Americans were buried, and told us that the 
Government expected to send photographs of 
graves wherever possible to the next of kin of 
the American soldiers. 

In the afternoon we drove about through 
the town and out into the country and returned 
to have another pleasant talk with Colonel 
Horton at dinner. He was leaving on the 
night train, so had to hurry away. 

We were interested and somewhat amused 
to see a group of East Indians sitting in the 
hall with their turbans, and dressed really like 
a lot of old women. If it had not been for their 
beards and boots, we might have thought they 
were women. We were told that they were 
very distinguished generals. 

The next morning Willard said he would 
leave cards at the legation. We had heard 
that Mr. Whitlock had left for America, but 
Willard thought he would go there neverthe- 
less. The entrance to the legation was inside of 
a courtyard. I sat in the car, waiting, when a 
gentleman came up, rested his elbows on the 
car window, looked in, and said, "How do you 
do?" I replied, "How do you do?" and he 
said, "I am Brand Whitlock." I exclaimed, 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

"I thought you had gone to America!" He 
then explained that there was a strike on the 
boat on which he expected to sail (the sailors 
struck on account of something about the pota- 
toes served to them) and they had not been 
able to leave, but were all packed up, expecting 
to sail any day. Willard seemed to have dis- 
appeared, and Mr. Whitlock and I talked a 
few minutes, when he asked if we would not 
come back to lunch with them at one o'clock. 
I replied, "I am sure we would like to do so 
very much," but that I felt very travel-stained 
and not presentable. He replied that there was 
no one there but himself and Mrs. Whitlock, 
and he hoped we would come. So we returned 
at one o'clock. As I said before, the entrance 
to the house was in a courtyard, and the steps 
inside were all of stone, as houses in France 
and Belgium were apt to be, and the drawing- 
room was on the second floor. We thought the 
house very pretty and comfortable, and had a 
very pleasant lunch. After luncheon, I sat with 
Mrs. Whitlock on a sofa in the drawing-room, 
and Willard and Mr. Whitlock were talking 
together. I thought we were staying a long 
time, and tried to make the move a number of 

1:135] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

times, but Mr. Whitlock wanted to keep Wil- 
lard, as probably he had had no one to talk 
over things with for some time, and would not 
let us go. Mrs. Whitlock told me a number of 
interesting things she had done, and about what 
had happened during the war. They were both 
very kind and agreeable, and we enjoyed seeing 
them very much. 

One very good result of the Whitlocks hav- 
ing been still in Brussels was that when Willard 
told Mr. Whitlock that we were going to 
Malines to see Cardinal Mercier, he said he 
knew the Cardinal was in Brussels that day, 
and he would telephone and find out if we could 
not see him there. Willard would have liked 
very much to meet the King of Belgium, but he 
was away at that time. 

One of the things that Mrs. Whitlock told 
me that was interesting was about a luncheon 
she had had for the King and Queen of Bel- 
gium, to which she invited Cardinal Mercier. 
She was a little doubtful as to whether she 
could make a success of the entertainment, but 
she heard afterwards that the Cardinal had 
been very much pleased, and had enjoyed it. 
She also told me that the Queen of Belgium 

1:1363 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

always wore white. Like everyone else, they 
admired the royal pair extremely, especially the 
King, and that the Queen had been wonderful 
under the circumstances, she having the misfor- 
tune of being a German. She told us that the 
King was looking forward to his visit to Amer- 
ica with all the delight of a boy, and that he 
was so very energetic his escorts would have 
their hands full in keeping up with him. 

Willard had letters of introduction to Car- 
dinal Mercier from Cardinal Gibbons and from 
the Catholic Bishop here. At the appointed 
hour we arrived at the house in which he was 
staying. A number of priests were in the lower 
floor, and we were asked to go up one flight. 
We went up in an elevator, and then were 
asked to wait a few minutes in a reception 
room. In a very short time we were taken into 
the room where the Cardinal was. He is an 
absolutely stunning-looking man, very much 
younger and better-looking than his photo- 
graphs. He is very tall, majestic, with piercing 
eyes and heavy eyebrows, and with a good 
color. His photographs give you the impres- 
sion of a very old man, but he does not look so ; 
he looks vigorous, strong, kindly and very in- 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

telligent. I have never met anyone who im- 
pressed me so much as he did, and it seemed 
quite wonderful to have the opportunity of sit- 
ting with him alone. We sat in front of him. 
He sat in a large chair and wore long black 
robes. We talked to him alone for fifteen or 
twenty minutes. He spoke very good English. 
Willard asked him to give him his photograph, 
which he promised to do, and sent it to us a 
few days later from Malines, writing on it that 
it was sent "To Senator and Mrs. Saulsbury." 
We told him that he would have a very warm 
reception in America. He seemed much inter- 
ested in his trip, had never crossed the ocean 
and it seemed a very long way to go. He 
wanted America to feel that he was coming just 
as much to the Protestants as to the Catholics, 
to thank them for the help of America to Bel- 
gium. We both realized what a privilege this 
visit to Cardinal Mercier was. 

I asked Mrs. Whitlock if there were any 
special places to go to buy lace. I thought as 
I was in Brussels I should buy a little as a 
souvenir, and she sent me to a person who 
made lace. It was not exactly a shop, it was 
more like a private house, and I bought a few 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

little doilies and a centerpiece. The pro- 
prietress told me that she kept a list of the 
names of all the people to whom she sold lace 
in America, and I said, "Oh, I come from a 
very small town, I do not think it is likely that 
anyone from there would have bought lace 
from you." But she brought the book, and 
read out, "Mrs. Charles G. Rumford, and Mrs. 
E. T. Canby," both of whom I know very well. 

We had never been to Brussels before, and 
we were very much delighted with the Grand 
Place, where they have the flower markets and 
the wonderful old buildings on the different 
sides of the square, the town hall, and church. 

The following day we started off to continue 
our trip through the devastated regions. We 
lunched at Lille, and were interested to see, as 
we drove along, the various earthworks that had 
protected the city for a time, in those first days 
of the war, when we waited breathlessly for 
help to reach the French at that point. As we 
drove on, we saw signs on the different roads, 
saying, "This road leads to so and so." All 
the names were very familiar to us, on account 
of having been so deeply interested in them all 
through the war. At one place I saw the sign 

1:1393 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

"Roubaix," which was the large town near 
where "my French soldier" lived. At the be- 
ginning of the war I bought a small map of 
France, and was in the habit, whenever the 
Allies were winning, of marking their gains on 
this map with ink. I wore out a number of 
these little maps during the war, because when- 
ever the Germans were advancing I would pay 
no attention to it, and when they were retreat- 
ing I would get a new map and mark it again. 

I was in Maine when the battles of Chateau- 
Thierry and Belleau Woods were taking place, 
and had no one to talk to in whose opinion 
I had any special confidence, but I wrote to 
Willard several times (without getting any re- 
ply), asking if these were not really gains, and 
if it were not a really important advance, and 
at last he replied, saying that it was a great 
victory. Imagine my relief and delight. 

As we drove along through this country, 
every foot of which we had been interested in, 
I felt very oppressed. We were again going 
through village after village that had been en- 
tirely destroyed. Willard was sitting out in 
front, as usual, with the maps, so that I did not 
have anyone to talk to. As we drew near to 

1:1403 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Lens, we commenced to see the awful devasta- 
tion of the country itself. All the trees were 
dead. Occasionally trees were standing, but 
they were dead. Generally they were either 
cut in half, or sometimes almost at the ground. 
There was nothing living in any of the fields, 
just great holes, and signs warning people from 
touching anything — "Danger of Death. Do 
not touch any projections. Danger of Death." 
There were great piles of barbed wire, bombs 
and shells. It was the most terribly desolated 
country that it is possible to imagine. 

I began to feel worse and worse. We reached 
Lens, which had been a town of 40,000 people. 
There was not a single house standing. Un- 
like the part of France where I had been be- 
fore, in which the cities were built of stone, the 
houses had been built of brick. The German 
prisoners had been made to clear the roads and 
pile up the bricks. There were great piles of 
bricks, but not a house. Occasionally one would 
see what had been the brick floor of a house, 
the roof of a cellar, and that people were liv- 
ing there. I saw a few people looking out of 
their cellars, and possibly a dozen people walk- 
ing in the town. 

CHI 3 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

I saw two women with a little boy, and called 
to the chauffeur to stop. I said to Willard, "I 
will have to get out and give those people some 
money." Before I could stop the car and get 
out one of the women had turned back, but I 
gave something to the other woman, and asked 
her whether she lived there, and she said she 
did. She simply took the money, said "Thank 
you," and seemed surprised. She looked very 
neat and clean. 

A little further on we saw a little wooden 
building, which was evidently one of the relief 
stations, Red Cross or something of that 
nature. 

It was one of our great disappointments that 
we did not see Ypres. It was very near, but 
we were obliged to go to Amiens to spend the 
night, and could not go out of our way. An- 
other place which I would have liked very much 
to see was Stenay. My great-grandmother 
was born there, and Pierre de Pelleport had 
told me that the chateau in which she was born. 
Chateau Servisy, had not been disturbed. He 
said that it was no longer in the country, that 
the town had grown out around the chateau, 
but that it was intact and had been used by the 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Crown Prince as his headquarters when he was 
there. My great-great-grandfather, the Mar- 
quis de Pelleport, who was in the French army, 
was stationed at Stenay, and was living there 
at the time that my great-grandmother was 
born. She begins her memoirs by saying, "I 
was born at Chateau Servisy near Stenay." 
When I saw that the Germans were at Stenay, 
I supposed of course that the place was de- 
stroyed. I had been told that it was not at all 
a pretty place, but I had a curiosity to see it. 

As I have said before, we would drive all 
day without seeing another private car. This 
road was very good. We were stopped at a 
crossroads near a public house by a little group 
of people who were standing in the road mo- 
tioning to us to stop. The chauffeur went to 
speak to them, and Willard came back to the 
car, saying, "This young woman has just heard 
that her child has died at Amiens, and they 
want us to take her into the town, so that she 
can get there in time for his funeral. Have 
you any objections?" I said, "Why, of course 
not;" so she sat with me. She was a young 
woman who did not speak any English, dressed 
in black. She told me that she had two chil- 

CHS] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

dren, and that one was a little boy four years 
old, who had died of meningitis at the convent. 
I supposed that she had gone back to her half- 
demolished house and sent her children to the 
convent, as so many people did. She looked as 
though she were the wife of a farmer or a store- 
keeper, a good class of countrywoman. She 
was crying half the time, and her handkerchief 
got so wet. She had a little black bag, and 
would take out her handkerchief and cry a little, 
and she evidently felt that she ought to talk to 
me. It was very pathetic. We were then about 
twenty-five miles from Amiens. 

She told us where she wanted us to leave her 
in Amiens. The poor woman took some money 
out of her pocketbook, and I wondered what 
she was going to do with it. She made an at- 
tempt to give it to the chauffeur, but he de- 
clined. She thanked us, and walked away. 

We were a little anxious about our arrival 
at Amiens, for it was the first place where reser- 
vations had not been made for us by the officer. 
We had telegraphed from Brussels and also 
from Lille. 

Fortunately we had comfortable enough 
rooms, but it was not a very good hotel, though 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

there was a very pretty courtyard where the 
guests sat after their meals. My attempt to 
order breakfast at Amiens was rather amusing. 
We are both substantial breakfast eaters, and I 
went first to the dining-room, Willard to follow 
in a few minutes. I said to the waiter, "Deux 
peches, iin cafe." Off he ran. I called him 
back, "m« the deux omelettes un lard." He 
looked wild and ran off again. A British offi- 
cer sitting at a table near said to me very 
politely, "Perhaps I can help you." I declined 
and then the head waiter arrived and I added 
orange marmalade to the rest and explained 
that my husband would be down in a minute. 
He, though with veiled disapproval, understood 
that we were only hungry, not crazy. It was at 
this hotel that chicken was charged for at a 
rate that one chicken would cost twenty dollars. 
After supper, Willard and I took a little walk 
through the town. Although there were places 
in Amiens where there had been great destruc- 
tion, generally speaking the town was not in 
very bad condition. I was surprised to find the 
cathedral almost perfect. Marie Bramwell 
and I talked several times about going to see 
the cathedral at Amiens when we were in Paris, 

CHS] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

but had not done so, and we thought from 
the reports that we would never see the glass 
or see the cathedral in any sort of condition, 
but as it turned out we found it almost intact, 
and had the opportunity of seeing the means 
taken to protect it inside. They were putting 
the glass back. A great deal of it was in place. 
We did not know whether it had all been saved 
or not. In the cathedral, they had protected 
the chapels by placing railroad track rails slant- 
ing from the ground up to the wall at small 
intervals, and filling all the spaces between with 
sandbags, which were still there. The cathe- 
dral itself is very beautiful, but the spire is very 
inadequate, it seemed to us. It is very slender 
and very beautiful in itself, but it seemed to 
me as if there ought to be at least two of these 
and one larger in addition. I said something 
to Guillemette about it, and she said that she 
had spent a month at Amiens while Pierre was 
at the front, and had gone to the cathedral 
every day. I have no doubt that it was a great 
comfort to her at that time, and she would not 
hear of any criticism of it at all. 

From Amiens we went to Beauvais to 
luncheon. I had been anxious to go there to 

Ch6 3 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

see the old tapestries. As good luck would 
have it, they were on exhibition at the cathedral 
that week, so that it was very convenient and 
easy to see them. After a very lovely and com- 
fortable ride in the afternoon, we reached Paris 
that evening. 



Ch?] 



CHAPTER XII 

THE next afternoon, Willard went with 
Ambassador Wallace to a tea given by 
Mrs. House, met Mr. Paderewski there, and 
had quite a talk with him on Poland. Willard 
thought it was the most marvelous thing, that 
anyone who had been a great pianist could prove 
himself a great statesman and leader of his 
country. Willard heard that Paderewski's wife 
tried to get him to play to divert his mind, but 
that it was absolutely impossible for him to play 
at all. All his thoughts and energies were directed 
to the one object, the welfare of his country. 

Soon after that, we went to a reception by 
Mrs. Lansing in the Hotel de Crillon and took 
Pierre and Guillemette de Pelleport with us. 
Mrs. Lansing wore a white gown, and looked 
very handsome. She is lovely in evening dress. 
The reception rooms at the Hotel de Crillon 
are very handsome, and it was a gay and 
attractive entertainment. I was busy intro- 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

ducing Americans to my cousins. I knew, of 
course, a great many people there because they 
either were Americans or were foreigners 
whom I had met in Washington, among others 
the Belgian minister, M. de Cartier, whom I 
had seen just before I left Washington, and 
had jokingly said to him that I had found some- 
one whom I thought would be a very good 
match for him, a widow, very beautiful and 
very intelligent. Hearing from Willard that 
I was at the reception, he came to speak to me, 
evidently in a great hurry to get away, and said 
to me, "I have taken your advice." I felt dum- 
founded, because I took it literally. He saw 
that I was puzzled, and said, "I am going back 
as Ambassador." When I had an opportunity 
to speak to Willard, I told him about this, and 
about the possibility of his going to be married, 
and a day or two afterwards he met Willard at 
the Embassy and said to him, "I am going to be 
married in two days. You can tell Mrs. Sauls- 
bury, but nobody else." 

I saw Mr. Paderewski surrounded by a crowd 
waiting to shake hands with him. After speak- 
ing, I stood aside, and watched him for a few 
minutes, when Willard came along. As soon 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

as he saw Willard, he just dropped everyone 
else, and went forward to meet him, and contin- 
ued talking with him in the most animated way. 
As we were leaving the hotel, Madame de Billy 
came in. I had met her and her husband in 
Washington. She is a very pretty young woman 
and her husband a distinguished man. I do 
not think she liked Washington, but when I saw 
her that afternoon in Paris she was looking so 
gay, happy and pretty that it was quite a shock 
to hear that her husband was killed either that 
afternoon or the next by being thrown from his 
horse and dragged by the stirrup. He had been 
in America on one of the missions, and was con- 
sidered a very able man, and was also very 
much liked by his friends. 

Justice Brandeis came to see us in Paris and 
I was so much interested in his description of 
his trip to Jerusalem, from which he had just 
returned, and in what he said relative to the 
return of the Jews to the "Promised Land." 
I cannot help thinking that it is a sentiment 
that is more fascinating as a dream than as a 
reality. 

Pierre's mother had been desperately ill just 
at the time we arrived in Paris, and we were 

i:'5i: 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

not able for that reason to go to see her. She 
was at her home, at Chateau Champlevrier in 
the southeastern part of France, and her 
daughters had been taking turns being with her. 
After the death of her husband, who was killed 
in the first few days of the war, his daughter, 
Marie Louise, whose nickname is Poucette, 
had been writing to me in his place. I had 
grown very fond of her. When I stayed at 
Champlevrier, her father had put me in her 
care, and she had been very sweet, and during 
the years of the war had written me most re- 
markable letters. She had married under what 
would seem to us very romantic circumstances. 
A cousin of her sister-in-law had seen her at 
her brother's wedding and had admired her 
very much. Like all young Frenchmen, he had 
gone into the army, and later was ordered to 
Roumania. He asked to see Poucette before 
he went on this very dangerous mission. Her 
mother wrote me wondering if she had done 
right to allow Poucette to see him, under the 
circumstances. Poucette wrote me that she had 
not remembered him. They had letters from 
him for quite a long while, and then there was 
silence, and they were afraid that he had been 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

killed. The mother was worried, fearing that 
Poucette had become interested in him, and 
would suffer if he did not return. To her sur- 
prise, he suddenly came back, and they decided 
that they would be married. They had eight 
days' honeymoon, and he went to the front 
again. 

Gabrielle wrote to me asking if I knew any 
American general well enough to ask him to 
ask for Henry de Sauzea. He spoke English 
and German fluently. It was soon after our 
entrance into the war, and the only general I 
could think of, whom I knew well enough, was 
General Gordon. He was a Major-General 
and was then in France. I wrote to Mrs. 
Gordon, sent her some of these letters and told 
her the history. Mrs. Gordon replied very 
kindly to me, saying that she had forwarded the 
letters to her husband, who was then at the 
front. 

I then received a letter from Poucette, saying 
that she had heard from her husband, who had 
written her saying that even if any general had 
written to him he would probably not receive 
the letter, since he had been moved several 
times. The next letter said that Henry found 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

that he was actually in General Gordon's Divi- 
sion. Then came the news that General Gor- 
don had sent for him, asked him to supper and 
to spend the evening. They had talked about 
me and about Poucette, and although his colonel 
could not spare him then, it meant a great deal 
to him to know the Major-General. Then I 
had a letter from Mrs. Gordon, saying that 
her husband had written to her that he had seen 
the young officer, and was very much pleased 
with him. General Gordon wrote to me also. 

Poucette was living with the parents of her 
husband, and as soon as we came to Paris, she 
wrote asking us to come down at once, sending 
an invitation from her father-in-law and 
mother-in-law to visit them. We declined for 
the present, but hoped to come later. Poucette 
then decided to come up to see us in Paris, and 
soon after she and her husband arrived. She 
telephoned me on her arrival, and sent me a 
lovely bunch of roses. 

Guillemette telephoned asking us to come 
to them to lunch on Saturday — the de Sauzeas 
arrived on Saturday morning. So we went to 
Pierre's to meet them. I found Poucette very 
much changed; for a moment I scarcely recog- 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

nized her. When I had seen her before, she 
was just grown, and all she had suffered in 
these years had matured her very much. I had 
not realized that she was so tall. She is a 
beauty and just as sweet and dear and affection- 
ate as she can be. I learned for the first time 
that she had a very fine voice. We had a very 
pleasant luncheon. Another young couple was 
there, Henry, Poucette, Guillemette, Pierre and 
ourselves. 

The programme was that they should dine 
with us that evening, Pierre, Guillemette, 
Henry and Poucette, and we asked Major 
Rufiin and Miss Eleanor Brown. Eleanor 
Brown is a sister of Donaldson Brown, and 
was working in the Red Cross in Paris. Greta 
had asked me to look her up. We had a pleas- 
ant dinner, which I enjoyed very much. I sat 
between Henry and Pierre, and found Henry 
a very agreeable, sensible fellow. We both 
liked him very much. Major Rufiin was very 
much carried away by Poucette, and was sorry 
that he had met her "too late." 

I had a little fun that evening by sending 
Major Rufiin off with Miss Brown. Our car 
was to take her home, and I said to Major 

C155: 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Ruffin, "You can take Miss Brown home, and 
then our chauffeur can take you to your house." 
I knew that as far as Major Ruffin and Miss 
Brown were concerned, this was not only per- 
fectly proper, but a self-evident proposition, 
but that the young French people would con- 
sider it one of our curious customs. 

The next day, Sunday, we lunched with Pou- 
cette and Henry at their hotel, and enjoyed it 
very much. They had a delightful luncheon 
and it was pleasant in every way. At Guille- 
mette's, Poucette's and my plate there was a 
wonderful pink rose, which I have never seen 
before, and have not been able yet to find out 
its name. After having it in the sun all the 
afternoon, I carried it home, cut off a little bit 
of the stem, put it in water, and it lasted nearly 
a week. The stem was more like that of a 
peony than a rose. 

Pierre had told me that a de Pelleport ances- 
tor's portrait was in the Chateau of Versailles, 
and I suggested that we go there and he, Pierre, 
could show it to us. So we all went out and he 
showed us the picture in the Salle des Battailles. 
He did not know which of the men was our 
ancestor, but he knew it was one of them. Then 

c>56n 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

in another gallery he showed us an ancestor of 
his mother's in the picture of a battle; there was 
a plan of the picture giving the names, and the 
name of his ancestor was there, although the 
only part of him that showed was his head as 
he fell in the battlefield. There was also a bust 
of the same man in the same gallery. 

It was very interesting wandering around 
with these young people during the afternoon, 
and we had a pleasant ride back to Paris. Pou- 
cette left Paris that night, for she had left her 
baby at home. I felt very glad to have had the 
opportunity to see her, especially as we after- 
wards gave up our plans for a trip to Switzer- 
land, and were not able to see her in her own 
home near Lyons. 



Ds?] 



CHAPTER XIII 

ON our return from the trip to the devas- 
tated regions, we tried to make plans by 
which we would spend two or three weeks longer 
on the continent, and had practically decided to 
go to Switzerland by motor, when we found 
that it would be almost impossible for us to get 
our baggage through in time to be of any use. 
There seemed to be so many difficulties in the 
way that we finally gave it up, and decided to 
go directly to England. 

In the meanwhile, we made various excur- 
sions from Paris. Willard had never seen 
Fontainebleau, and we rode out there one day, 
arriving about lunch time, and went to the very 
attractive Hotel France et Angleterre, which is 
just at the gates of the Chateau. We had 
lunch on the porch. There were very few 
guests, three or four officers, and two or three 
young women in uniform were lunching on the 
porch near us. We had a perfectly delicious 
luncheon and sat there for a while talking. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

I went in to look at some pictures I had seen 
from the porch, and spoke to the proprietor 
about them. He immediately became very 
much interested, and explained how this great 
number of colored prints were collected by his 
father and mother. He then told me he would 
like to show me some furniture, and ended by 
taking me all over the house, room after room, 
filled with the most beautiful old French furni- 
ture that I have ever seen. This collection 
had been a hobby of his mother and father. 
The hotel was entirely furnished with it, very 
handsome clocks and vases and all sorts of 
beautiful things, much of it such as you would 
see in museums. The rooms were all arranged, 
the beds made, but I did not see any signs of 
guests. He was evidently pleased to show the 
house to someone who knew something of old 
furniture and was interested in it. I began to 
think that Willard would wonder what on earth 
had become of me. At last we returned, and 
found Willard patiently waiting. 

We then went over to the Chateau, and after 
waiting a few minutes, went through it with 
quite a party, some young American soldiers 
and a few French people. The guide described 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

the rooms in French, and I translated what he 
said to Willard, not speaking very loud for fear 
the young Americans would think that I was 
showing off. There was one young American 
who evidently understood French about as well 
as I do, but after a while the guide asked him in 
perfectly good English whether he understood 
him, which amused me very much. I was glad 
to go through this Chateau again. 

After leaving the Chateau, we took a beauti- 
ful ride through the forests which are of course 
a wonderful feature of the place. We drove 
for quite a long time, met a few people walking, 
and I should think it would be a very pleasant 
place to stay for a while in the summer. Alto- 
gether, the peaceful quiet of this day made a 
pleasant change. 

We made several other excursions of that 
kind. One day we went to Saint-Germain, 
taking Major Ruffin with us. To our great dis- 
appointment, we found that we were not allowed 
to go into the Chateau, because the members of 
the Austrian Peace Mission were there; they 
were using the Chateau as their headquarters. 
It was all roped off, and we were not allowed 
to go near it, but we could go on the terrace, 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

from which there is a very wonderful view of 
Paris. With that exception, this was not a very 
pleasant trip, as we could not get into the good 
restaurant, and were obliged to have a very 
simple meal in a not very attractive place, and 
a good deal of the road in and out was through 
the town. 

One afternoon we went to Saint-Denis. The 
road out there is not a pleasant one, being 
altogether through Paris, and not an attractive 
part of Paris ; but we had a very interesting time 
in the church itself. The last time I had been 
there, there had been quite a crowd, and we had 
had a bad guide; but this time the guide was 
a much better one, and as there were com- 
paratively few people we had a good oppor- 
tunity to look at the tombs and to see the church. 

We went to Notre Dame. It is always de- 
lightful to go there, one feels the charm of the 
place, both inside and out. We were also 
interested in the young Frenchmen who were 
coming into the church constantly to pray, and 
to give candles to be lighted in memory of their 
lost relatives. 

There were two things which we did nearly 
every day — visit the book stores and the fruit 

1:162] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Stores. I would do the fruit buying, and bought 
peaches every day, and paid from two to four 
francs apiece for them. I also bought figs and 
some gooseberries, and other fruit. We seemed 
to have a craving for fruit, and could get very 
little of it. I think the French peaches are the 
best. They reminded me of the peaches I used 
to have when I was a child. They are grown 
on the walls of the gardens in France, and are 
very perfect and tender. I like them much 
better than the green-house peaches of England. 
These are too delicate. When we were in Eng- 
land, I used to buy peaches, and they cost 
about sixty cents apiece, some of them even much 
more than that. Usually we each had a peach 
at our breakfast. I used to enjoy the little 
French fruit shops, because the salesmen or 
women always talked to me, and seemed pleased 
if I said anything to them. 

It seemed strange to be in Paris and not to 
go near a dressmaker or to any of the big shops 
to buy the things in which women are usually 
interested when they are in Paris, but I was too 
much interested in other things. The day before 
I left Paris I bought myself two hats, thinking 
that I might possibly regret it if I did not; and 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

that only took me a few minutes, as I went to 
a French shop recommended by Guillemette de 
Pelleport and found the saleswoman who usu- 
ally waited on her, so that It did not keep me 
very long. 

We went to see quite a remarkable panorama 
of the war, and stopped for a minute to look at 
some photographs of soldiers which were in the 
hall, when a man came up to Willard and asked 
if he would go into a certain room, which we 
did. There he was asked to write his name in 
a book. We never could understand how they 
knew who Willard was. The panorama was 
very remarkable. There was a man to describe 
it and to tell who the people were, and one 
walked around a great big circle, and saw the 
pictures of different phases of the war, and of 
many distinguished people who acted in it, and 
especial events of the war were illustrated. 

One day we went to lunch with Mr. and Mrs. 
Robert Woods Bliss. We knew Mr. Bliss's 
sister very well in Washington, Mrs. Charles 
Warren. Mrs. Bliss is very beautiful, really 
stunning, and very attractive. She distinguished 
herself in relief work during the war, and her 
picture was one of the very prominent ones in 

1:164: 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

the panorama of which I have just spoken. We 
spoke to her about it, and she disclaimed any 
knowledge of it, and evidently was not at all 
pleased to have it there. It had seemed to us 
a little unfortunate that she should have been 
dressed in semi-evening dress in the panorama 
picture ; evidently this was the only photograph 
they were able to find to work from. I think there 
was only one American at this luncheon besides 
ourselves. There were various distinguished 
foreigners, but I cannot recall who they were. 

One of the pleasant results of our journey 
for me was making the acquaintance of an Eng- 
lish lady to whom I had been writing for some 
years. From the beginning of the war I had 
been contributing to the LaFayette Fund, which 
sent comfort kits to French soldiers. Each 
one had a postcard addressed to the donor, and 
I had received many notes from these French- 
men. One day, several years before, I had 
received an extremely nice letter from a lady 
at Versailles, saying that a French soldier who 
had received a kit from me had asked her to 
write to me because he could not write English. 
She had told him that I had much rather hear 
from him. 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

She went on to tell me something of this 
man, and also of the work that she had been 
doing, helping the families of these men, and 
also in sending packages to French soldiers, 
prisoners in Germany. 

I sent her some money to help her carry on 
this work, and in her letter of thanks she seemed 
very much astonished that I would send money 
without knowing anything about her. I had 
judged by her letter, and continued to send her 
money from time to time, and she would write 
telling me what she had done with it. She 
was an Englishwoman of about forty. In 
Paris and at Versailles one finds shops on the 
street, and in courtyards back private dwell- 
ings. Her apartment was arranged in that 
way. I went up a couple of flights of stairs, 
and rang a bell. She called to me to come in, 
and I found her very comfortably fixed, if she 
had been well. The rooms were comfortably 
furnished, but it seemed cheerless for one who 
was sick, as she was. She had some nervous 
trouble. While I was sitting there, two of her 
French friends came in, and Miss Woodbourne, 
the Englishwoman, introduced me as an Ameri- 
can, and they said, "Oh, is it the American 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

lady?" and Miss Woodbourne said, "Yes, it is 
the American lady," at which title I felt very 
much flattered. 

One of our pleasant experiences at this time 
was at Pavilion d'Armenonville, Bois de Bou- 
logne, as guests of Major Ruffin, after a ride 
through the park. It was a delightful clear 
afternoon, and we sat under the trees and talked 
for an hour, after a very good dinner. I sup- 
pose in pre-war days this place would have been 
crowded; on that evening, it was quite peaceful 
and quiet. 

Since my return home, I have frequently 
heard reports that Paris was normal. Imagine 
normal Paris with not a single handsome turn- 
out on the Champs Elysees, and fashionable 
resorts like the Pre Catelan and d'Armenonville 
as quiet as a country village ! 

How can a country be normal so soon after 
it has lost four million men — besides countless 
women and children, who have died as the result 
of the war? 

We dined twice at the Pre Catelan. Once 
Major Ruffin was with us. The other time was 
just before leaving Paris for England, when 
we were the guests of the Under Secretary of 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

State and Mrs. Polk, General Bliss being the 
only other guest. The Polks had just arrived 
in Paris to take the place of the Lansings on 
the Peace Mission. We like and admire them 
both so much, I was glad to have been able to 
arrange that evening for Pierre and Guille- 
mette de Pelleport to meet them on the follow- 
ing day. 

Mrs. Polk told me that her little daughter 
had noticed the young couples walking in the 
streets of Paris, with arms around each other's 
shoulders and hand-in-hand, and she had ex- 
plained that it was a French custom, to which 
the child replied, "The American soldier seems 
to have taken it up." 

I had often wondered, when I had seen 
*' 'Arry and 'Arriet" in the parks of London 
and the lanes of England, as well as the young 
couples in the streets of Paris, why it is that, 
no matter how humble the class, this pubhc love- 
making is never seen in America. 

Since my return home I have heard so many 
people lament the coming physical degeneration 
of the French people, owing to the fearful loss 
of life during the war, and have replied, "If 
you had seen the handsome Frenchmen I saw 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

in France last summer you would change your 
mind." I confess that years before I had 
formed an opinion of French people from those 
I had seen in the streets of Paris and forgotten 
that "there are more Jews in New York than 
in Jerusalem." 

I have never seen anywhere such handsome, 
well-built men as the French soldiers. The blue 
uniform is, of course, very becoming, but the 
fact that the British soldiers, like our own, had 
been made "while you wait" and that every 
Frenchmen was a soldier before the war began 
was most apparent. The old rhyme, "Five 
skinny Frenchmen, nine Portuguese, One jolly 
EngHshman whip all these," is out of date. 



n'693 



CHAPTER XIV 

AT the end of July we left Paris on our 
XjL way to England. Pierre de Pelleport 
said he would see us off at the train, and I was 
looking out of the window watching for him. 
Just a few minutes before the train pulled out 
he appeared, looking perfectly stunning. It 
was the first time I had seen him with his hat 
on; the French officer's hat of red and gold is 
very becoming. Willard said he had never seen 
anyone more well set up and fine-looking than 
he was that morning. He carried a bunch of 
roses which he brought me, the same variety of 
pink roses that Poucette had at her luncheon. 
After the long journey to England, I cut the 
stems off and put them in water, and they kept 
fresh for days. 

The last words Pierre said to us, after send- 
ing messages to his cousins here, were, "When 
you come back next year I will speak English 
perfectly." He had been given a week to study 
English when it became necessary for him to 

[■70 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

know something about it during the war. We 
Americans are so stupid about foreign languages 
we marvel at the ease with which the French 
acquire ours. 

Just as we were starting off, an officer came 
into the compartment, and as there did not seem 
to be quite room for his bags, I tried to tell 
him in French that he could move some of our 
things that were in the way. He replied that 
if I would speak English he thought he would 
understand me better. He spoke perfect Eng- 
lish. Willard could hardly contain his joy at 
this little setting down which I received. 

We had a smooth passage and no occasion 
for being seasick. The only trouble we had 
was after our arrival at Folkestone, when we 
lost our handbags. We were in a great state 
of excitement over losing them. I had my 
little bag, but the others seemed to have been 
lost somewhere in the excitement. After allow- 
ing several trains to go on to London we lost 
our seats, but fortunately found others, and had 
a very comfortable trip up to London, arriving 
at about nine or ten o'clock in the evening. We 
were met by the porter from the hotel. I took 
a seat in the bus, and Willard and the porter 

1:172] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

went on to the baggage-room to see if our hand- 
bags were there. As I was looking out of the 
window of the bus, I saw our bags on a little 
wheelbarrow going along the platform. I 
jumped out of the bus, and ran down the plat- 
form, and said, "That is our baggage!" After 
talking to the porter and the captain of the car 
for a few minutes, I persuaded them to wait, 
and presently Willard and the porter of the 
hotel came along, and we captured the bags 
and started to the hotel. As a matter of fact, 
it actually came on the same train that we did. 
We suppose that the steward, to whom Willard 
had given quite an extra fee, had not taken it 
to the customs at all, but put it on the train, so 
that the whole trouble was caused by his being 
in a hurry to get some more baggage and get 
some extra tips. 

However, it ended well, and we found our- 
selves at Brown's Hotel, to which I had declared 
I would never return, as it gives me the blues. 
But under the circumstances, we considered our- 
selves very lucky. We had gone to Brown's 
because we thought it was more likely that we 
could get rooms at a place where we had stayed 
before. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

In English hotels everything is arranged to 
make it impossible to put anything in the ward- 
robes. The rooms are filled with enormous 
pieces of furniture which nobody but an English- 
man knows what to do with. Even if you have 
a bathroom, they have a washstand in your bed- 
room, with all sorts of pitchers and basins on it, 
taking up a lot of room. They have ward- 
robes with lots of drawers but no place to hang 
anything. Everything seems to work back- 
ward, and on top of this the bedrooms are dark. 
They seem to think that the most important 
thing is to have a large sitting-room, which is 
always placed where you can get plenty of light 
and air, and is generally very comfortable and 
attractive. The guests always sit in their rooms, 
and you never see them except at meal times, 
and according to my idea it is very dull for 
people from America, accustomed to music and 
some general gathering-place where people 
meet. The last time I was in England, it made 
me so depressed that I persuaded Willard to go 
to the Hyde Park Hotel ; but they gave us such a 
kind welcome at Brown's we stayed on there. 

The day after I arrived, I went on a trip of 
investigation and found a suite which had a 

1:1743 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

modern wardrobe with hangers, and was lighter 
than the one that they had given us, and also 
had a maid's room in which we could put some 
of our trunks; and we settled down there for 
the rest of our stay. 

Some years before, we had gone to Brown's 
and I had said that I hated to go there because 
we did not see anyone we knew, and the day 
after we arrived, in going out of the dining- 
room to the room where they take coffee after 
dinner, we met Judge Gray, Mrs. Gray, 
and Miss Nannie Gray, two or three people we 
knew from Baltimore, some cousins of the 
Forbes', and two or three other Americans. We 
filled up almost the entire room in a few minutes 
with Americans. They then came up to our 
sitting-room and filled it up. It seemed rather 
absurd, after saying that we never saw anybody. 

Even on this occasion we did see a few 
Americans. General Sharp (who had been sent 
over by the Government on some war business) , 
whom we knew in Washington, and who was 
there for a few days, dined with us once, and 
spent the evening with us several times. We 
also had known Judge Alton B. Parker, who 
had been a candidate for the presidency a few 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

years ago. He had come to England to present 
the statue of Lincoln by Barnard to the City of 
Manchester. It was very pleasant to see him. 
He also came up to our sitting-room and spent 
one or two evenings with us. 

The season was over in London, and we knew 
that the Davises had gone to the country, but 
we called at the Embassy and left cards. We 
left London to spend a few days at Bath, having 
secured a fairly good car, in fact the use of two. 
When we went on long trips we had one, and 
when we went about in London we had another, 
not quite so comfortable, but with a fairly good 
engine. Motoring in England I think is very 
dangerous, owing to the narrow roads, high 
hedges and bad curves. We came within an 
ace of a bad accident near Wells. We spent a 
few pleasant days at Bath. They have a very 
good hotel, and the country about is pretty and 
interesting. We went to Wells from there, and 
made various other trips. 

In the drawing-room of the hotel at Bath is 
a clock hanging on the wall, almost exactly like 
one that we have. I asked a clerk at the office 
if she knew the history of it. She said that it 
had come from the restaurant of the Criterion 



THE SUiMMER OF I919 

Theatre in London. They had been offered 
£200 for it, and had refused it. I do not know 
where mine came from. I bought it at an 
antique shop in Washington from an English- 
man, but it had been a long time in this country. 
I have since learned it is called a Marie Antoi- 
nette clock. 

When we returned to London, we found a 
very nice note from Mrs. Davis, inviting us to 
dinner a few days before. I wrote to her imme- 
diately, and sent it to her house, saying that we 
were so sorry, but that we had been away. She 
happened to be in London that day, and tele- 
phoned and asked if we would not come around 
to tea, which we did. We met there a judge 
and his wife from Washington and a gentleman 
and his wife who were attached to the Paris 
Embassy. I think they were on their way to 
America. I think I mentioned that the house of 
the Ambassador was owned by a lady who sat 
next me at lunch at the Wallaces' in Paris, Lady 
Waterloo. It is in a good part of London, a 
gentleman's house, nothing very remarkable 
about it, but very suitable and dignified, but how 
different from that of Mr. Whitelaw Reld, who 
was in London when we were there before. 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

Mr. Davis often came to London to attend 
to business and several times he and Willard 
went out to play golf together. Once Willard 
took him in his car and the car broke down 
about two miles from the golf links. The 
chauffeur said he would try to pick up a car 
to take them on. He succeeded in stopping a 
small car with two men in it, who said they 
would take them on to the golf course. As they 
approached their destination Willard saw the 
Ambassador take some change out of his pocket. 
Willard said to him, "You had better go slow 
about that," and so he put the money back into 
his pocket. They simply thanked the men and 
Willard said, "You may be interested to know 
that this gentleman is the American Ambassa- 
dor." The man immediately said, "Oh, won't 
he write his name in my book?" which the 
Ambassador did, and said to the man, "This is 
Senator Saulsbury, who was President pro 
tempore of the Senate," and the man asked him 
also to write his name in his book. He was a 
collector of autographs, and it seemed strange 
that they could give him something that he really 
wanted, in exchange for his kindness. 

Sometimes Willard played golf with Mr. 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

Wright, who was Counselor of the Embassy. 
Mrs. Wright called on me, but I missed her 
both then and when I returned the call. Sev- 
eral times she went out to the golf course, 
thinking I would be there. The afternoon 
before we left London, Willard came in at 
about seven o'clock in the evening. I had 
dressed, expecting to remain in the hotel, in 
a semi-evening dress. Willard said, "The 
Wrights want us to come right around to din- 
ner." I said, "I can't go in this gown," and he 
said, "Yes, you are just right, no one Is to be 
there but the Ambassador." Willard had to 
rush and take a bath and change, for we had 
only half an hour. We took a taxi and went 
around to the Wrights' and had an extremely 
pleasant evening. After as good a dinner as you 
can have with English food, we talked till quite 
late In the evening. I had met Mr. Davis often 
In Washington, and had sat next to him at din- 
ners, but it was not quite the same as being so far 
away from home, and just five Americans talk- 
ing together. He Is not only a very good-look- 
ing man, but very agreeable, and I think a very 
satisfactory Ambassador to have In England at 
this time. Mrs. Davis Is a very pretty and 

1:1793 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

attractive woman, and I think will be a social 
success there. 

Mrs. Wright told me that housekeeping in 
London was very easy. You had a number of 
maids, each one doing only her special work, 
and it was much better if you did not give many 
directions. You were not supposed to say any- 
thing at all to the "tweeny." 

I was disappointed not to see Lady Reading, 
whom I knew very well In Washington. She 
had had a severe operation, and was at the 
seashore. 

The Colville Barclays were In London also 
at that time. We exchanged calls, but were not 
at home. Willard saw Mr. Barclay for a few 
minutes In the RItz. They were about to start 
for Sweden and were very busy. 

I went to see Mary Hounsfield, who had been 
living In London since the beginning of the war, 
and also went out to Oxhey Hall to see the 
other Hounsfields. We had tea with them, and 
a very pleasant afternoon. Almost every day 
we made some excursion into the country, lunch- 
ing at one place or another. One day we rode 
down to Canterbury to renew our acquaintance 
with the Cathedral. 

[180] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

We went to Salisbury on our way back to 
London from Bath. Willard had seen the 
Cathedral alone, and I had been anxious to see 
it ever since. If I lived abroad, I would spend 
a great deal of time in the cathedrals. Each 
has its peculiar charm, and the more one 
sees the more beautiful and interesting they 
appear. 

When the time for sailing came near, Colonel 
House told Willard that he and Mrs. House 
were expecting to sail on the Mauretania, and 
asked if he would not change his plans (we had 
passage on the Baltic) and sail on that boat. 
Lord Grey and his suite would be there, which 
would be pleasant, and if we were willing he 
would see that we got passage through the Brit- 
ish Foreign Office. As it turned out. Colonel 
House was called back to Paris, and was unable 
to sail on the Mauretania. In the meantime, 
the Ambassador had invited Willard to dine to 
meet Lord Grey, and he had also been at a 
large luncheon at which Lord Grey was the 
guest of honor. 

I had forgotten to say that we frequently 
went to the theatre in the evenings. It was 
rather disappointing that most of the plays were 

[•8.] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

those which we had seen In New York. I think 
the most remarkable thing we saw was the 
"General Allenby in Palestine" moving picture 
show. 

We scarcely thought, as Colonel and Mrs. 
House would not sail on the Mauretania, that 
we would see very much of the Grey party, but 
were agreeably disappointed. We sailed on 
Saturday afternoon and on Sunday morning 
Major Stuart came and asked us if we would 
lunch with Lord Grey that afternoon, which we 
did. The two young attaches, Stuart and 
Campbell, took our little table, and we went to 
Lord Grey's table. There were five of us; Sir 
William Tyrrell and Colonel Murray were the 
other two. 

Lord Grey told me that he would not be 
able to recognize me on the deck. I asked if he 
had had his teeth X-rayed, and he said that he 
had had his whole head X-rayed, found noth- 
ing wrong, and that the treatment for his eyes 
at that time was giving them exercise, trying to 
improve them in that way. I suggested to him 
that as Dr. Wilmer was supposed to be the 
greatest oculist in the world, he should consult 
him while in Washington. He replied that he 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

already intended to do so. As it turned out, 
Dr. Wilmer had Lord Grey's teeth X-rayed, the 
trouble was discovered, and he has been assured 
that his eyesight would certainly be no worse 
and probably better. It must have been worth 
while to have come to America for that alone. 

The next day Major Stuart asked Willard 
if he would play bridge with Lord Grey in his 
suite. The party consisted, in addition to Lord 
Grey, of Sir William Tyrrell and Mr. Strong 
of New York, who was the Governor of the 
Federal Reserve Bank there, Willard making 
the fourth. 

The following night, Tuesday, an entertain- 
ment was given for the benefit of widows and 
children of British sailors, which they always 
have on these steamers. Lord Grey presided. 
Sir Arthur Whiten-Brown gave an account of 
his flight from America to Europe. He was the 
American aviator with Alcock, the English avia- 
tor, who made the first trip across. We had 
heard from the American Ambassador in Lon- 
don that this young man had consulted him 
about the honor of being knighted for his ser- 
vices, as to whether it would affect his American 
citizenship, as he would not accept it if it did. 

[■83] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

The Ambassador told him that it would not 
have any effect on it. 

Willard, requested to do so by the manage- 
ment, made a speech thanking Lord Grey for 
having presided. He spoke of the friendship 
between England and America and said that 
Lord Grey at the outbreak of the war had so 
superbly managed the foreign affairs of Great 
Britain that our two countries came inevitably 
to fight under our united flags — thus realizing 
the hope of Thomas Jefferson for the complete 
rapprochement of the English-speaking races 
of the world. 

Wednesday he was again asked to play bridge 
with Lord Grey, the same party. Thursday he 
received the same invitation, and Friday evening 
about six o'clock we landed. Lord Grey told 
him jokingly that he was thinking of telling 
the captain that Sir William Tyrrell had the 
bubonic plague, to keep them on board another 
night, so that they could have another game of 
bridge. 

I had imagined Lord Grey very old, I sup- 
pose because he was such a great man, and was 
surprised to find him quite the reverse. He is 
unusually tall, has not a grey hair in his head, 

1:184] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

and his whole appearance expresses character, 
strength and kindliness. Sir William Tyrrell 
is short and jolly, a polished man of the world, 
very amusing and interesting. I believe he has 
a lot of good common sense. In fact, though a 
contrast to each other, they are both most 
agreeable. 

I had a little talk one day with an Australian 
captain who had been two years in a Turkish 
prison, and had given an account of it one even- 
ing in the drawing-room of the steamer. He 
was on his way home. He told me that he did 
not think that the Turks especially meant to be 
cruel, they were naturally cruel, did not care 
whether their own soldiers lived or died. I 
am afraid to say positively, but it is my impres- 
sion that he said out of ten thousand prisoners 
about eight thousand died. You can hardly 
imagine how anybody could have lived through 
the experiences he had had in escaping. He 
spent hours of each day for several weeks hid- 
den in a pipe on the steamer on which he 
eventually sailed. The whole story was more 
exciting than an Oppenheim novel. 

Apropos of this, a few days before we left 
Paris we were lunching at a table next to the 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

one at which General Harbord was sitting with 
several other officers, and he came to say a few 
words to us before leaving. He was just start- 
ing for Armenia to investigate for the Ameri- 
can Government the condition of the Armenians. 
It almost seems incredible that there can be any 
Armenians, there have been so many massacres. 
He has just returned to this country with a 
report on the situation. 

To return to the Mauretania. While Wil- 
lard was playing bridge with Lord Grey, I spent 
my evenings with Colonel and Mrs. Colin 
Campbell. Mrs. Campbell was a Miss Leiter, 
a sister of the well-known Lady Curzon. I 
found her a very sweet and agreeable compan- 
ion. Her husband usually sat with us in the 
drawing-room of the steamer and read, while 
we talked. We just happened to meet again 
in the Pullman coming down from New York 
(she was on her way to Washington), so I had 
another long talk with her, and liked her very 
much. We heard afterwards that Colonel 
Campbell was going to become an American 
citizen owing to the tremendous taxation on in- 
comes. In some instances, when an American 
heiress had married an Englishman, between 

1:1863 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

the American and the English income taxes the 
tax was greater than the income. 

We landed late in the evening, and owing to 
the scarcity of men to handle the baggage we 
sat for hours on the dock. I would sit on the 
only trunk we had found, and then wander away 
for a while, hunting for the others, and then 
Willard would do the same. As time went 
on we were the last people on the dock. Several 
of Lord Grey's suite came out and sat on the 
trunks with us, and wandered about for a while. 
They spent the night on the boat, and I hope 
found their trunks with less trouble. 



D87: 



CHAPTER XV 

WE arrived home the last of September, 
after having had the most wonderful trip, 
full of so much interest and pleasure. 

Not long after our return, the Prince of 
Wales came to Washington. The Vice-Presi- 
dent and Mrs. Marshall sent us an invitation to 
meet him at the Congressional Library, which 
invitation arrived the day after the entertain- 
ment; but we received one in time from Lord 
Grey, which read in this way: 

"To have the honor to meet His Royal Highness the 
Prince of Wales the British Ambassador requests the 
honor of the company of Senator and Mrs. Saulsbury 
on Thursday evening, November the thirteenth." 

Our reply was worded: 

"To have the honor to meet His Royal Highness the 
Prince of Wales Mr. and Mrs. Saulsbury have the 
honor of accepting the kind invitation of the British 
Ambassador to a reception on Thursday evening, No- 
vember the thirteenth." 

1:189] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

The reception at the British Embassy was 
not a crowded one by any means. It seemed 
as if we knew everybody there, and as I had not 
been in Washington for some time, everyone 
was extremely cordial and seemed glad to see 
us again. We had a delightful evening. The 
Prince of Wales was standing in the front 
drawing-room with a very tall member of his 
suite, I have forgotten who he was, who intro- 
duced us. He replied very pleasantly to my 
greeting, and smiled. He looked extremely 
young, but had a very pleasant, bright face. 
Later in the evening. Sir William Tyrrell took 
Willard back to have a few minutes' conversa- 
tion with him. 

I was told that Mrs. Gillett was going to have 
a dance for him that evening at the Country 
Club, and I was very glad to hear it, he looked 
such a boy. He must have been bored to meet 
so many older people, and I thought he would 
enjoy dancing with the American girls. Mr. 
Gillett is now the Speaker of the House, and he 
and his wife are both very attractive people. 

Lord Grey asked Willard to dine and play 
bridge once or twice after that, and he was able 
to go one evening to bridge, although he did not 

1:190: 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

get there in time for dinner. He had gone 
down to Washington in his car, and said to Sir 
William Tyrrell, "Won't you get your bag and 
come up with me for the ride, and to spend the 
night?" He said that he could not do so, as 
he had an engagement, but intimated that he 
thought Lord Grey would like to come up some 
time. When Willard told me this, I said, "But 
what on earth shall we do to make it pleasant 
for him?" But it seemed only polite to invite 
him, and Willard wrote asking if he and Sir 
William Tyrrell would come up on Saturday 
afternoon two weeks later, and stay until Mon- 
day. Sir William wrote to Willard saying that 
it would be impossible for them to come, and 
ended up his note by saying, "Give us another 
chance." But that evening, Willard being in 
New York, I received a telegram for him from 
Lord Grey, saying that they were going to the 
Gridiron dinner on Saturday night, but if con- 
venient they would come on Sunday morning 
and stay over night. I tried to catch Willard by 
telephone. I was not able to catch him, so I 
telegraphed myself to Lord Grey, saying that 
Willard was in New York, but that we would 
be delighted to have them on that Sunday. 

[■90 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

We went over various plans of what would 
be agreeable. We knew that he did not care to 
meet a large number of people, but thought that 
it would be pleasant for him to meet somebody. 
We thought of various friends we would have 
liked to ask to meet him, but it was so very 
difficult to draw a line. We ended by asking 
General Wilson and Judge Grubb to lunch. 
General Wilson had represented this country at 
the coronation of King Edward, and Judge 
Grubb had traveled a great deal in India and 
abroad. 

Lord Grey and Sir William had to leave 
Washington at nine o'clock in the morning in 
order to get a good train, and as they were up 
very late the night before at the Gridiron din- 
ner, it really seemed very good of them to make 
the effort. When I came back from church that 
day I found General Wilson and Judge Grubb 
had already arrived, and they were all sitting in 
our library talking. 

I had decided to have all sorts of American 
food for them to eat, and they certainly should 
have enjoyed it, as Amanda, is a very good cook, 
and our food is so much better than English 
food. We had terrapin for lunch, which I 

1:192] 



THE SUMMER OF I919 

think they liked well enough, although not at 
all enthusiastic about it. We had an old Vir- 
ginia ham, which they actually did like. When 
Lord Grey saw it coming, he said, "Oh, I like 
that!" 

I had told General Wilson and Judge Grubb 
that they were going out very soon after lunch, 
so they left early, and Willard took the Am- 
bassador and Sir William Tyrrell for a ride in 
my car as far as Chadd's Ford, that being an 
historic spot. They came back from there about 
four o'clock. We had invited about twelve men 
in to tea at half past four. Sophie and Bruce 
Ford were in Wilmington at a dance the night 
before, and I asked Sophie to help me at the tea. 
She was the only woman whom I asked. As 
relatives, we had LeRoy Harvey and Bruce 
Ford and Donaldson Brown, and we asked 
Judge Woolley, Chancellor Curtis, Judge Mor- 
ris, Irenee duPont as President of E. I. 
duPont de Nemours & Company, Colonel Jer- 
vey in charge of Rivers and Harbors, Colonel 
Campbell from Fort duPont, Mr. Kirkus, our 
rector, and Gamble Latrobe, as the head of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Division. Mr. Curtis, 
who is the owner of the Saturday Evening Post, 

1:1933 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

the Ledger, and the Ladies' Home Journal, also 
came to tea. Colonel House had told him that 
Lord Grey would be here, and he was anxious 
to see him. 

That evening we had Tom Bayard to dinner 
and play bridge, as his father had been our first 
Ambassador to England, and we thought it was 
appropriate. They played in the west library, 
and I believe had a very pleasant game, as it 
lasted until one o'clock. 

They had to leave early the next morning. 
I forgot to say that we had hominy for dinner, 
which Lord Grey liked and Sir William Tyrrell 
did not like. We had turkey, which they both 
liked. In the morning, we had buckwheat cakes. 
Amanda makes the best buckwheat cakes in the 
world. I do not think they particularly enjoyed 
her cakes, which showed the perversity of the 
British mind and taste. 

After breakfast there were a few minutes to 
spare, and Lord Grey and I walked around the 
garden; Lord Grey noticed the different trees — 
the jinko trees and others on the lawn — ^which 
showed that he could see quite a good deal. 
Speaking of his sight, I said to him, "I asked 
you on the Mauretania whether your teeth had 

[194] 



THE SUMMER OF 1919 

been X-rayed." He replied, "Oh, yes, but your 
X-rays are better here." 

As I walked around the garden with him, I 
thought, what a wonderful thing this is! I 
remembered how the whole civilized world had 
been in suspense as to what he would do on 
the 1st of August, 19 14, and what a relief it was 
when he said that England would go into the 
war. It seemed the most absolutely unlikely 
thing in the world that could happen would be 
that he should be staying with us in Wilming- 
ton, and walking around our garden with me, 
in 1919. 



imi 



